


Grace's Roommate

by Theonewhosawitall



Category: Hawaii Five-0 (2010)
Genre: Domestic, Feelings Realization, Fluff, Kidnapping, M/M, Oblivious, Original Female Character - Freeform, Rick's Bar, soft, stake out
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-17
Updated: 2020-05-20
Packaged: 2021-03-03 02:28:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 24,577
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24227368
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Theonewhosawitall/pseuds/Theonewhosawitall
Summary: Since Grace left for college Danny has had a lot more time on his hands for other things. Things like facing feelings he had not had to face before. And with more time than ever to spend with Steve, facing those feelings were harder than he'd expected.And when Grace goes missing Steve and Danny find themselves stuck on a stake out together alone.Except for Grace's new roommate that is.
Relationships: Steve McGarrett/Danny "Danno" Williams
Comments: 5
Kudos: 67





	1. Chapter 1

In the back yard of an old wood panel house that lead down onto the beach, it was very early in the morning. So early in fact, that the sun had only just risen above the roof tops enough to be seen by anyone. The early morning sunlight was pale enough to be just barely yellow, and it was warm. Warm like the comforting hug of a soft duvet.  
The same kind of duvet that should have been draped across the pair sleeping soundly in the open air. Arms wrapped around torsos, and legs were tangled together as toes faced the gentle breeze trickling off of the ocean waves. The two were so entwined they slept as one. And the soft pale sunlight that rose around them was now glittering off of the same blue water.  
It was that light that nudged at him. The palm tree at this end of the hammock was missing a leaf and that let the sun shine almost directly in his face. But it was the shrill cry of the gulls searching for their morning meal that actually woke him up. The gentle coo of the pigeons soothed the temper he would otherwise have woken with, although the hush of the ocean helped even if he'd never admit it.

The drowsiness still clung to him as he began to become aware of his surroundings. The heavy arms that wrapped around his chest, the legs pressed against his own, the way his head was laying against something that felt like a shoulder. He could feel the rise and fall of someone’s chest behind him. Their breath was soft in his hair. As his mind took longer to catch up, none of this seemed odd to him. Instinctively he reached out to gently stroke the arm holding him so tenderly.  
Slowly he dared to blink an eye open against the sun sweeping across him. As gentle and polite as its early rays were he had not expected to see it. Nor did he expect to see the gull sitting on the telephone wire that led to their roof. The bird was partially silhouetted by the sky, which had yet to find its colour. The world was still just waking up after all, it was still rising to accompany the spotlight. The stage was only just being set for the day.  
From this angle the silvery puff of steam's glimmering irradiance playing in the waves. In the distance boats were bobbing on them too. Modern living was joing the call to wake with the mornings rise and now, well, now it was people's turn. He closed his eyes at the mere thought of it. For the moment, humans didn’t exist beyond this bed. It was just him, the birds, and the ocean. Not even the bees were daring to buzz this early. And if he could just block out the sun, just enough to trick his mind back into darkness...

A gentle nudge from a slightly stronger breeze caused the hammock beneath them to rock slightly, and he felt the person behind him shift at the sensation. That's when doubt entered his mind. Danny didn’t currently have a partner...  
The moment before he could react, the first car sprung into life and filled the air with the rumble of the engine, and his chest deflated. Other people existed. Other people were awake. Other people were off to work.  
That meant that any time now-  
The bleep of the alarm sent a bolt through his chest, jolting him awake. The sound came from behind his head, from whoever had been supplying the warmth right up until this moment. They groaned softly as their watch's alarm beeped continuously, moving their arm to reach it. The movement of their arm allowed the cool air to take away the warmth. When they hit a button there was silence. The hammock rocked as they rolled back into their previous position. After a moment and a deep sigh, the arm snuggled back against him.  
Danny knew that arm. He knew that alarm too. But when he heard a sleepy but familiar voice croak softly behind his ear...

"Morning.”

Danny’s heart thundered inside his chest. The sudden icy panic shocked him awake and he shot bolt upright, causing McGarret's arms to peel away from him and the hammock to swing. That sudden movement shocked Steve awake, alerting him to the sudden realisation of the situation he was in. Both of them leapt back from one another like they had been stung by the other.

"What the hell are you doing?!" Danny cried.

"Me?! You’re the one who was too stubborn to let me have the hammock in peace!" Steve argued.

"You're not the one being used as a teddy bear!" Danny argued back.

"Oh no, I'm just the body pillow," Steve huffed sarcastically.

Danny basically rolled out of the hammock like a new surfer trying to float on the sea for the first time. There was no dignity in the scramble, and less for Steve when he was thrown out of the hammock as it lunged sideways. Danny scrambled to his feet, leaving Steve laying across the floor groaning at the impact.

 _Honestly_ , Danny thought to himself, _for a big bad navy seal he's such a baby!_

He threw his hands in their and said, "Let's just pretend none of this ever happened!"

"Fine by me!" Steve said back.

"Fine!" Danny huffed.

"Fine!" Steve huffed back.

Danny shook his head huffed again and stormed off inside, leaving Steve on the floor. Steve watched him go, scowling. Once he was out of sight, Steve's shoulders sank. The plan to cheer Danny up the night before had clearly backfired this morning.  
Ever since Grace had gone to college Danny had been grumpy. It wasn't like she had gone far either. She was only in Kapolei; she hadn't even left the island! But between her constantly working on her studies and student meetings, and Danny constantly working they didn’t have much time for one another anymore. Danny hadn't seen her at all for almost two months now and he was missing her. Add on the fact that Charlie was too sick to come and stay for the weekend like he was supposed to, and Danny hadn't seen either of his children for a month. But he had seen Steve every day.

Steve had just suggested a night in with some drinks so he wouldn’t be focused on that fact he was practically living here again. It wasn’t his fault that he and Danny had squabbled over who got to sleep in the hammock, and it wasn’t either of their faults that they were too stubborn to be the one who got out. plus they were drinking! They were tired! It was only to be expected that they fall asleep. Yet part of him was still feeling slightly guilty that he had allowed Danny to be in this situation. Danny was never grumpy. That’s who he was. he was never going to be happy about waking up in Steve’s arms, but if he was honest, he didn’t like how light his chest felt without him lying on it now.  
Steve shook that thought from his head and pushed himself to his feet. Danny was going to see Grace today. He would chill out after that. he had to get himself back on schedule and follow the routine that had keep him in check since he got home. First things first, jogging on the beach!

“Yeah sweetheart, I understand…”

Danny’s voice was soft like he didn’t want Steve to hear as he snuck through to the stairway. Steve felt a stab of guilt. He didn’t mean to make Danny feel uncomfortable. Not that Danny would believe that. or care. He slunk upstairs trying not to disturb Danny as he did.  
Danny wanted to keep his conversation with Grace quiet. Not just because he didn’t want her to think he was hungover, but because he did not want Steve to hear him.

“We can spend the same amount of time together, I’ll just be there earlier, y’know?” he urged.

Grace sounded dubious. Danny tried to suppress the bubble of irritation in his chest. Grace had her own life now. this was bigger than just not wanting her friends to see her daddy drop her off, she actually had things to do. she was almost completely grown up. he couldn’t just drop in on her life without warning. But at the same time, he couldn't spend another minute in here. Not when Steve made his chest ache the way it did. The way it ached the day he saw Rachel in that pretty blue dress and floppy carrying that picnic basket under her arm. Even though he hated every moment of that picnic, that feeling in his chest, the tightness, the warmth, it still carries him through bad days.

“I know Danno but class doesn’t finish until twelve so I won’t be there when you arrive,” Grace explained.

“I’ll just wait in your dorm then, I know where it is, I helped you move in!” Danny urged.

“You can if you wanna, but my roommate will be there. she’s a bit…”

The way Grace trailed off would usually give him cause for concern but right now his mind was clouded by Steve. Especially when he called from upstairs.

“Danny?!”

“Look I gotta go, I’ll see you at twelve,” Danny said down the phone.

He already took it away from his ear so he missed her saying, “Wait, Danno-”

Steve jogged down the stairs in knee length shorts and a baggy shirt, the same way he usually did. Danny rolled his eyes at the way his own chest heaved. The self-betrayal. He hated it.

“What?” he asked impatiently.

“I’m going jogging, don’t lock the door when you go,” Steve said.

Danny rolled his eyes at Steve this time. “Have you learned nothing from the amount of break-ins you get Steve?”

“I don’t like jogging with my keys!” Steve responded instantly.

It was clear that he had had the argument waiting on the tip of his tongue ready to use as soon as Danny started to argue.

“I can’t – I just can't have this argument again. If I get back and you’ve been robbed-” He began.

“I’ll make sure it’s just your stuff that gets taken,” Steve smirked.

“Funny. See you later,” Danny said plainly.

He headed for the front door as Steve jogged towards the back.

“Send Grace my love,” Steve called.

“Whatever.”

…

Tracing the same beat back and forth on auto pilot had helped Danny to remember the paths he took outside of that beat. Having carried a dozen boxes from his car to this dorm for his little girl when she moved in, well, it was easy for him to find the exact room he wanted even in this maze of identical hallways. His mind was still so busy mulling over that moment and the odd comfort that filled it that he didn’t even stop to spit some sarcasm at the kid lodged against the dorm door with their legs tossed across the hallway. Drunk idiot was probably waiting for his roommate to get back. If the RA found him like that - well, Danny wouldn’t know. He didn’t meet the RA. or Grace's roommate. Neither had been around when Grace moved in.

"Gracie, its Danno, open up," he called while pounding on the door.

The door remained unmoved. He glanced at his clock. It was still ten to twelve. Even stopping for breakfast hadn't given enough time for her to finish class. If she'd gone that is.

"Come on Grace, open up," He called again.

This time the door swung open, but it wasn't Grace standing there. Instead it was a girl who hardly filled the doorway. She was short with pink streaks in her dark hair, rips in her jeans, a hoop neck shirt and a plaid jacket tied around her waist. She was barefoot, there were doodles down her arms and bags under her eyes. She did not look nearly as intimidating as she thought she did.

"Um, aloha, is Gracie in?" Danny asked.

She tilted her head a little and blinked calmly. "I don’t know a Gracie."

For a moment Danny was thrown. He hadn't expected the British accent, he hadn’t expected what she said, and he had not expected to be told he was wrong. It had been so long since he was here last, he actually considered his instincts had tricked him. But he took a step back and noted the door number, and he knew he had gotten the right room.

"You don't know- well I know this is her dorm, I was there when she moved in, can I see her please?" He repeated.

She laid a hand against the opposite frame of the door, barring him from getting past.

"There’s no one here by that name," she repeated firmly.

Danny craned his neck to try and see past her (not that he really needed to, he had half a foot on her) and looked into the room towards the desk at the back.

"Oh really? Well that’s her laptop- did you just-"

She pulled the door closer to her side so he couldn’t see in either so he had to take a step back and try not to roll his eyes.

"There's no one here called Grace. Can I help you in any other way?" She asked.

Her tone was getting firmer and darker now, but Danny had dealt with his fair share of uncooperative suspects and his ex-wives over protective friends during their divorce. He could sit them out. He moved thousands of miles to be with his daughter here. If sitting _her_ out if it's what it took to see her again, he wouldn’t even think twice.

"When will she be back?" Danny asked.

"I don't know a Grace," She lied stubbornly.

"I'm her father ok? I’m her dad, is she around?"

"I don’t know a-"

"Yeah, alright, see this badge?"

When he flashed his golden badge off of his belt her demeanour changed slightly. She shifted where she stood, but kept her position barring him out. But there was a look in her eye. The same spark of concern that most perps had when they heard an associate had been arrested. Her gaze flicked from the badge to him.

"You’re a cop," she said, her voice cautious.

"I'm Five-0," he corrected.

The caution fell away. She fell back into the same stubborn disdain she had acquired when he first asked about Grace.

"Congratulations. You got a warrant?"

"A warrant? I need a warrant to get into my own daughters-" Danny began.

She cut him off with an eye roll, "Look man, I'm not trying to stop you seeing your daughter I’m just saying she aint here. Maybe you could call her and if she wants to meet you-"

"If she wants- if she wants to meet me? I’m her father why wouldn't she want to meet me?" Danny argued.

"I don’t know what to tell you sir but that’s your best bet," she spat.

She stepped back inside and moved to shut the door behind her so Danny lurched forward to try and stop her.

"I- wait, no, hey-"

"Danno?"

The door opened again as both his and her attention was drawn to Grace at the end of the hallway. She grinned at her dad, and the smile lit up her face. The closer she got the clearer her features were. Even with the bags under her eyes and the Cheetos stains around her mouth, Grace growing into a beautiful young woman. That struck more fear into Danny's heart than half of the things he watched Steve do. Well, some of them anyway.

"Gracie! There you are," Danny grinned back.

He bundled her into his chest to give her the same bear hug she always resisted. This was no different to every other time. Then her roommate leaned out of the door and gestured to Danny as though he wasn’t there.

"You know this guy Grace?" She asked.

Grace glanced up at her dad from under his arm and nodded. "This is my dad Tracy. Tracy, Danno, Danno, Tracy."

"So yes?" Tracy asked.

Grace laughed brightly and pushed away from Danny. "Yeah I know him you goof! Let us in."

"Let us in," Danny echoed smugly.

Tracy stepped back to let them through. They passed through into the room and she shut the door behind them before moving towards her bed.

"Sorry about that my dude but in my defence you’re a strange guy wandering around searching for a special girl. I don’t know who you are, deny, deny, deny is the safest way yknow?" Tracy chuckled.

"That’s ridiculous," Danny said.

"Danno, Tracy stopped us getting robbed once because some girl was wandering around pretending, she knew people to get into dorms and steal laptops. She keeps us safe, she’s the best!" Grace explained.

Tracy laughed and batted a hand modestly, "Ah, stop G you’re making me blush!"

Both of them giggled the same way that Danny had seen Grace and her little friends do since childhood. It was cute back then. Now he wondered if that was something they were ever going to grow out of.

"Yeah, she seems... yeah, so do you wanna go get breakfast or something?" Danny asked.

"Sure, let me just put my books down," Grace said.

When Grace moved away towards the desk Danny glanced towards the wall. These tight spaced rooms were usually filthy - students have more important things to do than clean after all, he had been to college - but this was different. His eyes widened. He couldn’t bring himself to look away from it.

"What is that?!"

Tracy and Grace looked up to see what he was staring at. There was some kind of grey coloured gloopy substance peeling through the wallpaper. It was slightly fuzzy in some areas and weirdly smooth in others. Danny could practically smell the toxicity.

"We don’t know. We call it Steve," Tracy said.

Danny snapped upright in surprise, his heart skipping a beat again. "You call it- why, why do you call it-"

"The squirrel in over the hedge says things you don’t know are less scary if you give it a name. Calling it Steve instead of the gross grey slimy thing growing on the wall feels much safer," Tracy explained.

"Plus, it looks like uncle Steve," Grace added.

"That’s not very ni- oh hey, it does..."

Danny had to tilt his head to see it, but he was seeing Steve everywhere anyway so he was just glad to have an excuse.

"How is uncle Steve?" Grace asked.

The fact his name had come up again made Danny's stomach ache again.

"Are we here to talk about Uncle Steve or are we here to get breakfast? Hey? Come on its been two months and you just wanna talk about Steve?" Danny teased.

"Tracy we're gonna go to the canteen, wanna come?" Grace asked.

Danny felt a stab to the gut. He didn't want to bring her along. He wanted time with his daughter. But that sounded far too immature and selfish.

"To the massive dining hall that smells of feet and weed? Hard pass," Tracy said.

"Oh no, what a shame, pleasure meeting you. Come on Gracie," Danny ushered her out towards the door.

"See ya Danno," Tracy called after them.

Danny groaned under his breath. Charlie had learned that from Grace, but so had a dozen other kids. Including Steve. At this point he wasn’t sure if it was weirder to have his kids friends call him Danny or Danno. He would prefer Detective Williams, but he didn't want to embarrass Grace by enforcing that. It was already enough that her boyfriends had to call him that, if he made the girls do it too, she might just stop coming to see him altogether.

That thought was soon put out of his mind but watching Grace wolf down four pancakes like she hadn't eaten in two days. They weren’t even good pancakes. They felt like cardboard and tasted like paste.

"Do you want mine as well or are you just going to eat the whole table?" Danny asked sarcastically.

"I’m hungry! I skipped breakfast," Grace whined.

"What?! What do I always say Gracie?" Danny asked sternly. "Always-"

Grace joined in with the same bored repetitive tone that she usual did.

"Always eat breakfast even if it’s just a banana on the run because your brain needs the sugar!"

"I know, I know!" Grace ended.

Danny leaned against the table, subtly pushing his plate over to her. She knew him well enough to know what he was doing. She tugged them closer and picked at the edges of her pancake.

"Hey, hey, you’ve been spending too much time with savages like uncle Steve. Normal people use cutlery," Danny scolded.

Grace huffed and rolled her eyes but she reached over to pick up the fork anyway. Danny folded his arms in front of him and sighed.

"Why haven’t you been eating Grace?" He asked gently.

"Oh, I've just been busy rushing around yknow?" She shrugged.

She kept her gaze down on the pancakes so she wouldn't have to look at him. Danny furrowed brow.

"Gracie," he warned gently.

"I'm not lying!" She argued.

"Concealing truths is the same as lying," he pointed out.

Grace's shoulders sagged. One of the worst things about having a detective for a father was he always knew when you were lying. It’s what she and Will had connected over as kids. Never being able to keep your secrets yours was why she wanted to stay in the college dorms even though she had not one but two homes (and McGarret always let her crash there when she needed to so technically three) that she could have stayed in. But it also meant that she had to open up, and when she did, she was listened to.

"I figured if I skip breakfast and have a bigger lunch then I can save a little money," she admitted.

Danny's heart sank, "Save money- Oh Grace, no! No, you don't have to worry about that!"

"I know, but I didn’t want to have to ask you for more money. Especially when you’re paying for dorms so I don’t have to stay with you, and you have to save money for Charlie to go to college too," Grace insisted.

Danny's heart went out to his daughter. She was still trying to be the grown up one. Always thinking about how to make life easier for her parents. He loved her for it, but it hurt to see when she couldn't do it.

"Well if you’re really worried about money, you know can always try to get a job-" he began.

"I’ve had a thousand interviews Danno! No one will hire me!" Grace interrupted.

Despite the whine in her tone and how she slumped back in her chair, disappointed in herself for not living up to standers, Danny couldn’t help smirking.

"A thousand? Really?"

"Alright, six, but none of them will hire me!" Grace insisted.

Danny chuckled softly. He reached across the table land laid his hand on top of hers. He pinned the fork down so she would have to stop eating and actually pay attention to what he had to say. She avoided his gaze as he spoke, but he kept going regardless.

"Look honey, its a tough world at the moment, and you have to be tough to get through it, but its going to be alright in the end. It might take a while, but you'll get a job. You'll finish this course, go on to be a world-famous paediatrician, and pay for my retirement home so I can sit there and go "I'm so proud of my daughter" while Uncle Steve is still out there trying to be Batman. I promise you until then and after, I will always make sure you are ok. You got that?"

"I know you will," she admitted.

As much as she wanted to be self-reliant, she knew she didn’t have enough to survive without her parents yet. After everything they had been though, part of her was really scared to try.

"Because I love you," Danny added.

She dropped her head lower and muttered, "I know."

"Did you just Han Solo me, what, are you too grown up to say it back?" Danny asked loudly.

Grace could feel the eyes of her fellow students glancing over at them. She flinched at them and hissed, "Danno!"

"C’mon, I come all this way, give you my pancakes, and you won’t even tell me you love me? What’s with that?" Danny asked.

"I love you ok?! Now shhh, people are looking!" She urged.

"are you embarrassed to love your father? really, ok then I’m taking my pancakes back, how'd you like that huh?"

Danny dragged the half-eaten pancakes back towards him, stabbed a chunk with a fork and stuffed it into his mouth pointedly. Grace couldn’t help but laugh at the absurdity so Danny kept playing it up. It warmed his heart to see her happy. He just wished he could see more of her, but then again, he always had.

At least they had the rest of the day, just as long as no one died.

...

"I'm concerned.”

“You’re _always_ concerned. If you were calm, _'Id_ be concerned.”

Steve threw a raisin into the air and threw his head back to catch it on its way back down. He was sitting on the side in the kitchen watching Danny washing up after dinner. Danny claimed washing up helped him relax, but Steve could see the tension in his shoulders as he scrubbed at a sauce stain. The man didn’t know what relax meant. The only time Steve ever saw him look remotely relaxed was in that hammock, but he wasn’t allowed to mention that.

"It’s been two days and she hasn’t called or texted since," Danny insisted.

"Because she’s off being a kid and enjoying her life! Not everyone feels the need to stress out over every little detail like you man," Steve countered.

Danny watched the raisin fly into the air and then tumble back down, bouncing off of Steve's chin and rolling down his face to fall into his crotch. Steve pinched it back out and chucked it into his mouth this time. Danny arched an eyebrow.

"You certainly don't," he said.

Steve reeled back slightly, "How'd this suddenly turn on me? All I’m saying is you should relax; I'm sure Grace is fine. She’s probably just in the library with her phone on silent."

"For two days?" Danny said drily.

"Maybe her charger broke," Steve shrugged.

He chucked another raisin into the air and tracing his mouth underneath it, bobbing like a fish. He caught it. It didn't improve Danny's mood.

"She'd still have her laptop. The only damn reason I have Facebook is so she can contact me even without her cell, I'm telling you, something's up," he said.

Steve wrinkled his nose uncertain about his idea, but it was the only one he had to offer. "Look, I'm sure she's fine, but if you want me to run the cell though the system-"

"No, no I don’t want that!" Danny stressed, "I don’t want to be the kind of father who stalks his kids GPS. just because he hasn't heard from her in two days."

He had to reach back into the bubbles to find the pan that he had just dropped while complaining. Steve meanwhile nodded approvingly.

"Smart move," he said through a mouth of raisins.

"What makes you say that?" Danny asked accusingly.

"Nothing, I'm just saying that’s a smart move," Steve shrugged.

"You think she’s somewhere I should know about?" Danny asked.

"I'm not sure where she is but I'm sure it’s nothing to worry about," Steve said.

"You think she's somewhere I should know about. Somewhere she’s keeping secret from me, like another boyfriend she doesn’t want me to know about don’t you? You think she’s been gone two days because she’s skipping school for some _guy!_ Oh God, she’s throwing away all that money for some greasy no good son of a-"

Steve bounced off of the side to step forward and put his hand on Danny's arm and pull him away from the sink. He had already caused a minor tsunami from throwing the pots and pans and scrubbers around carelessly.

"Hey, hey get a hold of yourself! Come on man, you need to learn to chill," Steve urged.

"If you dare suggest we go jogging again, I swear to God-"

Steve let that idea die on his tongue so he could pretend it never entered his mind.

"I'm not going to suggest any form of exercise, alright, just calm down. You’re getting yourself all worked up over nothing," He said.

"Over nothing? Nothing? Steve, Grace has not gone two days without texting me since she left. Now all of a sudden it's nothing?" Danny argued.

"You said she was trying to get a job, right? Maybe she's been swept up in that between studies and too tired to text when she gets in. Maybe it’s just slipped her mind, ok? You don't always have to jump to the worst-case scenario," Steve said.

"Great, so maybe she’s not in danger, maybe she’s just forgotten all about her dear old dad and doesn’t care anymore," Danny said sarcastically.

"That’s not what I'm saying-"

"Yknow, she didn’t even want to say she loved me when we were out. Yeah, and she asked about you before she asked about me. What does that tell you huh?"

"Tells me you're reading way too much into things again," Steve said plainly.

Danny's shoulders sagged as he let out a heavy sigh. "I'm losing her Steve. Today she forgets to text, next week no call, then no visits, next thing you know I’m an old man whose daughters forgotten he exists."

"I’d tell you you’re overreacting but I’ve got a feeling you know that, and it won’t stop you," Steve said, rubbing Danny's shoulders as he did.

"Right on both counts," Danny sighed.

"You’re admitting I’m right about something, ok, now I know you’re losing it," Steve said.

"Joke all you want-"

"I'm not joking, I'm legitimately concerned about you. For the last few years you’ve either been at work with me, looking after your kids, or hanging with us and now the kids aren't in the picture-"

"Who says the kids aren’t in the picture - THE KIDS ARE ALWAYS IN THE PICTURE!"

Steve threw his hands up in the air and threw himself up onto one leg to pretend he was caught in an explosion. If the cocky little half smile, he did with it hadn’t been so damn cute, Danny would have been really mad about it.

"Okay, okay, jeez! No need to bite my head off, all I'm saying is you should find some kind of hobby or something to help you calm down," Steve said.

Danny tried to keep the glimmer of humour out of his voice. He hated that Steve could just pull the anger out of him like that.

"A hobby?" He repeated.

"Yeah, a hobby," Steve said.

"Like what?" He asked.

"Uhhhhh, you could come surfing with me if you want. I could use the company now Chin and Kono have gone."

Chin and Kono had left a hole in Steve's surfing life when they chose to leave. Adam tried to fill it for a while but his extra curricula activities kept him too busy. Junior and Tani preferred to surf alone. As for Lou, well, Lou was a golfer, not a surfer. Danny was neither.

"Yeah well if I was Grace's roommate but hobby could be my career," Danny said.

Steve frowned. "What are you talking about?"

"I met Gracie's roommate, Tracy. Some British kid, I dunno. Something about her just got to me. She reminds me of someone," Danny explained.

"Who?" Steve asked.

"I can’t put my finger on it. Someone annoying I know that," Danny said.

"Well what's it matter, you're Grace's dad not hers," Steve shrugged.

"Yeah but it’s the way Grace talked about her after breakfast. Like she's so awesome just because she's from the land of castles and high tea. We got away from them for a reason, yknow?" He complained.

"We got the fourth of July to thank for that- oooh! Independence Day, that’s a great movie, we should watch that," Steve said.

Steve was rather good at distracting himself when he wanted to be.

"You want another night in to watch a movie, I thought you were going out on a date or something," Danny said.

"Nah, she cancelled. Caught at work or something, I dunno. What you gonna do?" Steve shrugged.

Danny reached for the tea towel to start drying things off. "Sounds like she’s blowing you off."

Danny smirked to himself. The jokes that he could have gone for in response to that were amusing him already. He didn’t have time to voice any because Steve had reacted before he finished his sentence.

"Blowing- I don’t get blown off buddy, she’s just busy ok. People have jobs, people can be busy."

"I know that, I have the busiest job on the island!" Danny said.

"You have the- I'm the commander, I’ve got the busiest job! You, you barely move if its not worthwhile," Steve teased.

"What'd you mean? I move. I have to, I have to keep track of your dumb ass when you’re trying to kill yourself every twenty minutes! You get your liver shot, I'm there, you get radiation poisoning, I'm there-" Danny began.

"Yeah, every unlucky thing that happens to me, you’re there. You’re a curse Danny!" Steve grinned.

Danny rolled his eyes. "Funny. Real funny. I try to point out all the nice things I do for you, and you just throw it back, really classy."

He was only half pretending to pout. His mood hadn't managed to improve yet and he was still concerned about Grace not texting, but trying to tease Steve had at least distracted him for a moment.

"Aw c’mon don't be like that! C’mon, let’s start over. Hey-"

Steve slung an arm around Danny's shoulder to tug him into a hug. Danny pulled away at first, but soon settled his head against Steve's shoulder.

"Thank you for cooking dinner Danny, it was really nice and I appreciate it," Steve said earnestly.

Danny couldn't stop himself from smiling, even if he tried. "Thank you. I like to be appreciated so thank you."

Steve squeezed a little tighter before he let his arm slip away. Danny felt his chest tighten as he caught a whiff of Steve's aftershave. His mind wandered back to the hammock but he shook those thoughts out of his head.

"Would you like to grab a beer, make some popcorn and watch Independence Day now?" Steve asked.

"Yes, please, that sounds great lets do that," Danny said.

"Right, good, I'll get the popcorn," Steve smirked.

"By the way you have something right-" Danny reached out a finger to press it against them on Steve's chest and as he glanced down Danny flicked him in the face. Steve shook his head in surprise and the gave Danny the most unimpressed face as Danny smirked. "Got it."

"Alright, real mature, come on knuckle head," Steve said.

The two of them chuckled at each others teasing comments as they set up the film and popcorn. Even though there were plenty of other seats available, neither either considered sitting anywhere but on the couch together. As always, Steve laid an arm across the back of the couch that would inevitably end up around Danny's shoulders. It was a routine that they had settled into together so easily that neither even questions it anymore. It was familiar. It was comfortable. It was so regular that Danny let it soothe his anxieties.

So much so he didn’t notice when Steve subtly texted Grace, just to check in on how she was doing. No big deal. No worries.

She was a big girl now right? What good would worrying do?


	2. Chapter 2

Steve marched right through the dorm halls in the exact same way he walked through raids in Afghanistan. There was nothing he could do for those sprawled across the ground so he ignored them and focused on the mission. He kept his head down, his stride strong, and his arms low to his belt in case he needed his badge or his gun. He knew exactly where he was going and nothing was going to stop him. When he reached her door, he did what his sister referred too as "the cop knock". That knock was always his because it demanded to be answered immediately.  
The door only opened after the second time he knocked. Again, it wasn't Grace who answered. Tracy let out a heavy sigh when she saw it was him. Steve glanced her up and down, taking in the camo pants and bomber jacket and bare feet before finally looking over her head and into the empty room.

"Where's Grace?" He demanded.

"I don't know-"

"Don't give me that crap ok, I'm her uncle, she's not answering her phone, where is she?!"

Tracy's face changed in such a minute way that anyone else may not have noticed but Steve, Steve was trained for this. He raised an eyebrow expectantly.

Tracy still chose to go with, "I don't know what you’re talking about."

Steve rolled his eyes impatiently and huffed, "I said don't give me that crap, where is she?"

"Look man, I don't care who you are, I can't tell you what I don’t know. I haven’t even seen this girl, I do not know who she is," Tracy lied stubbornly.

"Ok, come here-"

"Hey!"

Steve grabbed her by the wrist and yanked her towards him so he could handcuff her. He wasn't here to mess around. Not where Grace was concerned.

"You're under arrest-"

"I - under arrest?! For what?!"

Her shouting had riled the other students from their dorm rooms. A small crowd was forming. Some even had their camera phones at the ready. It was something Steve was used to by now, and he ignored them completely as he left Tracy in the hallway.

"What's going on here?" One cried.

"Go get Squiffy!" Another called.

"Do _not_ get Squiffy, I can handle this!" Tracy shouted.

Steve ignored all this to march into their dorm. He noted a couple of important details instantly. The missing clothes, laptop, phone, and most importantly, phone charger. Wherever Grace went, she knew she was going for a while and she had planned to stay in contact.

"Grace isn't here, where is she?" He demanded.

Tracy furrowed her brow. "Do I have the right to plead the fifth if I'm not an American citizen?"

Steve grabbed her arm and started marching her down the hallway despite her protests.

"Shut up, let’s go."

Danny did not expect to have to face his daughters college roommate cuffed to the chair in the interrogation room of the palace any time soon, and yet here he was doing just that. Three days of not hearing from her though or having any indication that she was, in fact, alive, had really taken away any concerns he may have had about this situation though.

"If you have any idea where my daughter is-" he began.

"If Grace doesn't want you to know where she is who am I to tell you?" Tracy interrupted.

She was still clinging to the tough girl act although it had substantially weakened by being dragged down to this dark and windowless room and handcuffed to a chair. Steve lingered in the background by the door, but he was all muscle. He was just a threat. It was Danny who had brought in a chair to sit closer to her, who was asking the questions, that she was wary of.

"I don’t know who you think you’re protecting, but Grace would only drop of the radar if I told her to and knew she was safe. I didn’t tell her to, I do not know if she’s safe, and if she isn’t and you’re keeping that information secret I guarantee that you will not be safe, got it?" Danny said.

Tracy licked her lips. She was young and in a foreign country, and she knew what the American government was like. Hell she knew what her own government was like. If they wanted her to, she could disappear right now and the only people who would care were in a whole other country. On the other hand they could call Interpol and that would help just about nothing.

"I'm going to ask you one last time, where is my daughter?" He asked firmly.

"I don’t know, ok?" She cracked. "All I can say for sure is last time I spoke to her she was safe."

"Last time you, what do you mean last time you spoke to her, when did you last speak to her?" Danny asked, failing to keep the stress out of his tone.

"Look..." Tracy sighed and dropped her head, "Grace has been really stressed out about a lot of things recently. I told her she should take some time to relax, maybe go home for a while but she said she couldn’t go home. She said..."

Tracy trailed off again, glancing at Danny as she did. He gave no indication of his thoughts other than to wave a hand to try and make her keep going.

"What? what did she say?" He asked.

"Don’t you dare like to us either, because we'll add interfering with the course of justice to your rap sheet," Steve warned.

"I don’t want to get involved in home arguments," Tracy whined.

"Good thing this isn’t a home thing then huh? Now start talking!" Steve snapped.

"What did Grace tell you?" Danny asked, calmer.

Tracy looked uncomfortable. And it wasn’t the handcuffs. She couldn't fully bring herself to look at Danny. Both he and Steve knew she was hiding something. She wasn’t exactly subtle about it.

"Please. It’s important. I need.... I need to know she’s safe, I need to know where she is, and you can help me. Please just tell us what you know, ok, please, for me," Danny half begged.

Tracy tried to resist but it heart her heart to hear the desperation in his voice. The worry and concern that weighed so heavily in his words. But she also couldn’t look at him as she said it.

"Grace said she home was too stressful for her right now. She was always either stuck with Charlie while her mum sorted things out over the phone, trying to keep him busy so he didn’t interrupt, or all alone at her dad's place while he was off nearly dying in some dangerous stunt. She said choosing between houses made her feel guilty and she couldn’t get any work done because of it."

There was a long pause as she finished talking. Steve watched Danny, waiting for his reaction. Danny seemed to mull on this for a moment or two, before continuing calmly.

"So where did she go?" He asked.

"Well..." Tracy shook her head, "I guess she was talking to this guy, an ex, I think? I’m not sure. They were close. He said she could stay at hers, but she said no, so he said..."

"He said what, for God's sake stop pausing and just tell us!" Steve raised his voice so it echoed around her.

Tracy raised hers back. "I don’t know man, he could have said anything, all I know is that it made her want to leave the island!"

Now Danny reacted. His shoulders tensed. "Leave the- no, there’s no way she'd leave the island without telling me. She'd need her passport-"

"She only went to Molokai!" Tracy interrupted.

"How? When? If you want out of here you need to give us answers!" Steve warned.

Tracy pulled a face at him. Steve was unperturbed. He’d stared in the eyes of terrorists who would claw his eyes out and choke him with his own teeth given half the chance. A little girl giving him a dirty look was nothing. But she turned back to Danny. She was gentler with Danny.

"Grace left the day you visited. She said she didn’t want you to worry unnecessarily-" she explained.

"Didn’t want me to worry unnecessarily, how thoughtful of her," Danny scoffed.

"She wanted to wait until you had left so she could leave and come back without you ever knowing. She’s due back tomorrow, and she was supposed to text me every night from the hotel," Tracy explained.

"Wait- supposed to? As in, she didn’t?" Danny accused.

Tracy shifted her feel guiltily. "Um... not recently..."

"And you just weren't going to tell anyone?! She could be in danger; anything could have happened!" Danny raised his voice.

"I was hoping she'd just got caught up in a holiday romance, or just relaxed a bit! That girl is so tightly wound she worries about everything. I told her to go to this hotel we went to once on an educational trip, it has killer Wi-Fi and signal so I knew she could always contact me if she needed to," Tracy explained a little frantically.

Danny rose from his seat angrily and flipped the back to make it clatter noisily but not quite fall over. The echo was loud and painful but neither man reacted to it. Tracy found herself wondering if they could even hear any more if all their interrogations were this loud and echoey.

"What hotel?" Steve demanded.

"I don’t know," she shrugged.

"You just said you'd been there, why lie?!" He demanded.

"No, I don't know! I’ve been there, hell I could take you there, but I don’t know what it’s called or where it is. I thought if she could just have time alone, she would get out of her head enough to move things along... I didn’t mean for anything like this to happen..."

Tracy trailed off guiltily again. Danny stared at her for a moment, and then stormed out of the room. Steve instinctively followed. Danny ran his hand through his hair and paced back and forth bitterly.

"Talk to me man what’s going on?" Steve asked.

"I caused this," Danny said.

"What? How’d you jump to that conclusion?!" Steve asked.

"If I wasn't Five-O-" Danny began.

"Come on now Danny's that’s ridiculous-" Steve began.

"If I wasn’t a cop, she would never have been placed in so many dangerous situations! Whenever she’s alone at home, she's wondering if I'll make it home alive. She's scared that I won't beat the bad guys one day, and I get it!"

"Danny don’t do this to yourself."

"I mean how many times have I been shot in the line of duty? I gave you my liver without even thinking, we were in isolation and I got shot! Then there’s forest fires, building collapse- and outside of that, I got stabbed by my girlfriends ex! Life around me is not safe, and Grace knew that enough to avoid coming to me when she needed a break, this is my fault. You’re right, I'm a curse!"

Danny had worked himself up enough to try and shout the last words so Steve had to raise his over his so he could help calm him down.

"You’re not a curse! None of this is your fault Danny, and listen to me," Steve moved his hand from Danny's arm to the back of his neck to promise intensely, "I promise you, were gonna find her. Alright?"

Danny shook his head and stared down away from Steve's face.

"You know as well as I do you can’t promise loved ones anything like that," he said softly.

"You can when you know you’re right," Steve said. His hand slipped away as he added, with more flare in his tone, "think about it, how many scrapes has Gracie been in? Her first date with Will she got held as a hostage, remember that? And the car crash?"

"You’re not making me feel better," Danny groaned.

"I'm just saying Gracie is a Williams. Ok? She’s tough. She's smart and she's strong just like her dad. If anything's happened to her, she'll find a way to survive until we get there to save her," Steve said confidently.

Danny pursed his lips as he considered this. "You'd better be right."

"We can go right now if you want. I'll fly us there," Steve offered.

"Yes, please, now!" Danny agreed.

"Alright let me just grab the girl."

Steve gestured to the shut door behind them and Danny reached out to stop him.

"What, why?"

"She’s the only one who knows what hotel Grace is staying at, where else would we start?" Steve asked as if it was blindingly obvious.

Danny shook his head reluctantly, "I don’t want to bring her."

"It’s bring her and start at the hotel, or start by finding the hotel," Steve said.

Again Danny pursed his lips. He knew Steve was right but he really didn't like it.

"Fine, but I bet you'll live to regret it," he warned.

Steve regretted it from the moment they hit the air strip. It may have been under police custody but a helicopter ride is a helicopter ride and she was practically vibrating with excitement.

In the air, she was much more of a chatterbox than either of the men had expected. She also kept leaning forward in her seat to look at the dials as well as out of each window. The shifting weight made the ride bumpier than usual.

"Why are you flying? How’d you learn, did you fly in the army?!" She asked excitedly.

"It was the marines that taught me, yes," Steve said.

"Wow! Do you fly professionally, can you do tricks, do a loop-di-loop!" She beamed.

"Do _not_ do a loop-di-loop!" Danny cried.

"This is so cool," She beamed.

"Flying is something you should really concentrate on-" Steve began.

She gasped brightly as a question hit her and cried, "What's been your best crash?"

"Don’t answer that," Danny urged.

Tracy caught onto that and suddenly tilted her head apologetically. "Sorry, are you scared of flying Danno?"

"Don’t call me that, and no, no I’m not. I just don’t want to think about plummeting thirty feet into the water down there ok, it’s not a nice thing to think about," Danny said.

He had kept his hand curled up against the corner of his eye so he wouldn't have to see as much out of the window as he should. At no point did he seem to enjoy any part of this.

"Don’t worry Danny we're nearly there," Steve assured him.

"Ooh look! A tour helicopter!" She cooed. Then she laughed and sighed at the same time, saying, "Man I would love to see the island from the air!"

Danny threw Steve a look that said, _what the hell does she think is happening right now?!_ But neither of them wanted to actually deal with her new found enthusiasm, so Steve took control.

"Let’s focus on one thing at a time alright? Now, what part of the island is the hotel on?" He asked.

"No idea, we took a boat. If you land by the docks, I can walk you there," she pointed to the edge of the island where boats were moored.

"Roger that," Steve said.

"Ten four!" She beamed back.

Danny rolled his eyes. He was beginning to place that finger on who she reminded him of.

...

Reluctantly, Tracy had agreed to wait in the lobby while Steve and Danny went up to check the room Grace had been staying in. Steve was still walking with such purpose he had over taken Danny, but waited by the door for him. Danny's heart was aching with worry. He had to take a deep breath before the door was even open.

"Hey," Steve said gently, "It’s gonna be alright."

Danny didn’t seem convinced, but he nodded. He pushed the door open and wandered in. The receptionist said she had checked in but she hadn’t seen her since, which tallied with the timeline Tracy had given, but didn’t give Danny any reassurance.

The room had been tidied recently. Any signs of struggle were removed so it wouldn’t be easy to find any. But her laptop was still on the bedside table and her charger was still plugged in, so it couldn’t be a robbery. Wherever Grace went, if she left with someone, it was someone she knew. All of these things Steve noted aloud. Danny wasn't listening though. All he could see what was not here.

"Alright, so she wasn’t alone on the island, someone else was with her. Who?" Steve asked.

Danny turned to look at him. His mind was misting over with all the thoughts and emotions that were beginning to whirl in his mind. He met Steve's gaze. Looking at his expression it was clear that Steve was trying to treat this the way he usually did. Just another case. No unnecessary attachments.

Except he could also see the panic and concern in his eyes. Both of them were deeply concerned about Grace's safety, but they couldn't let that cloud their judgement like Danny's mind was clouded right now, so he tried to clear his mind.

"Tracy mentioned an ex," he said.

It didn’t quite register that the words had left his mouth because he hadn’t really registered them in his mind. Steve smirked to himself. Danny was such a good cop he didn’t even notice it half the time because his mind did it on automatic.

"So who are Grace's ex's?" Steve asked.

"The only one I know about is Will," Danny shrugged.

"Alright well I'll head back to the lobby and ask Tracy if she's got any ideas. Are you alright to stay here and check for clues?" Steve asked.

"Clues? Are you scooby doo now?" Danny teased.

Steve grinned. "Ooobie-doobie-dooooooooo!"

He even managed to prise a smirk from Danny as he spun back to head back towards the lobby. Although when he explained their findings to Tracy, she had a bigger reaction than he expected. It was in that moment that the novelty of arrest and helicopters rides faded and the reality of the situation hit her.

"Wait she’s not- she’s not here?! But she has to be! Where else should she be?!" Tracy cried.

"That’s what we need to find out, its possible someone was tracking her-" Steve began.

"Who? Why? Where would they even take her?" She demanded desperately.

Steve frowned. He took her hands gently in his and lowered his voice to a soothing tone. "Ok, listen to me, calm down. Take a deep breath and listen to what I’m saying. Grace is not here but neither is her car. Now, chances are she’s gone on a nice little day trip around the island, but maybe something else has happened-"

Tracy snatched her hands back and spat, "I never understood why Americans in movies shot people so often, but if this is what you're all feeling all the time, I get it! If anyone’s hurt Grace-"

"Then we'll deal with them. We're trained for it, and we're actually supposed to do it," Steve said firmly.

Tracy gave a quiet and disdainful huff. It might not have been good enough for her, but it was the best she was going to get. Steve decided not to say that to the already riled girl, mostly because he could sympathize with her. If he could get away with just shooting the idiot that had put his dau- his partners daughter in danger, he would take it in a heartbeat. Danny wouldn’t even take that long.

But they couldn’t. There were rules. And right now, there were more important things to focus on.

"We need you to think so we can work out who were looking for ok?" He urged.

Tracy took a second longer to look annoyed before nodding in agreement. Steve allowed himself a short sigh of relief before diving in.

"Ok. Is it possible that Grace had a secret boyfriend Danno and I don’t know about? An ex of some kind who would want to hurt her?"

"Another ex?" Tracy repeated. She wrinkled her nose and shook her head, "not that I know of no. I mean, it’s possible, I haven’t known her that long but... no."

"Well she knows someone on this Island. Either someone who lives here or someone came here specifically because she did," Steve said.

"How? Only like four people knew she was coming here," She said.

"Who?" He demanded.

"Uh, me, obviously. She told her professor because she's gonna miss some classes, and we had to get permission from the RA to hold a bake sale to raise some cash... maybe it’s only three of us then," she shrugged.

Steve hummed thoughtfully. He glanced around the lobby for any signs whatsoever of where she could have gone. Steve wouldn't pretend he knew anything about Grace that Danny didn’t, but Tracy had a whole different angle on her.

"Is there anyone who lingers around your room a lot? Someone who spends too much time where they shouldn’t be?" Steve asked.

Tracy scoffed, "Babes, we live in a student block. No one would be there. There’s like, toxic mould on the walls. We call it-"

"Tracy focus. Think about the people. Who lingers?" Steve asked.

Tracy hummed thoughtfully, frowning as she did. She shook her head and shrugged. "I can’t think of anyone specific. No one who could afford to come here anyway."

"Right then I think we’re going to have to stake out the place. Chances are if anyone did take her, they'll come back for her things so they can’t be traced," Steve said.

"Cool beans, so I can just, what, go home?" Tracy asked.

There was something in the way that she said it that alerted Steve's instincts that instincts that she should not be let out of sight just yet.

"No," he said.

"Uh, ok, should I book in? Hey Jamie-"

Steve moved to lower her now raised hand and waved away the receptionist she had been calling over.

"No, no, no, you are the only person who knows what the people from your college look like. You have to stay with us," he said firmly.

She frowned. "In... the car we drove here in?"

"Where else?" He asked sarcastically.

"With... you two?" She wrinkled her nose.

"No, I'll book Danny in so if anything happens in this place that we miss he'll catch it," Steve said.

"Oh so Danny gets to stay in the nice place?!" She complained.

"Detective Williams to you," Steve corrected.

"What about me?"

It was his impeccable timing that Steve both adored and loathed about Danny. It was the British tendency to complain about things to anyone - except usually the person who they should complain to - that he hated about Tracy.

"You get to stay in the nice room but I have to waste time in the car with this guy all night!" She complained to Danny.

Danny’s eyebrows rose at the same time he tilted his chin back with that silly look of surprise that almost always led to Steve ending up in the doghouse.

"Were doing a stake out?" He said.

"I thought it'd be easier for you to stay in here in case Gracie came back," Steve explained.

"No, if she comes back, I want to be in the car with you, I want to see it," Danny said.

"Are you sure?" Steve asked.

"Are you kidding? Absolutely!" Danny said firmly.

"Alright," he shrugged at Tracy, "Guess that puts you in the backseat."

Wiping the smirk off of Tracy's face put one on Steve's. Mind you that was soon wiped away too.


	3. Chapter 3

Tracy laid with her back against the back seat and kicked the ceiling above her like a bored toddler, which could have easily drawn attention to themselves if allowed to continue.

"Hey, hey quit that!" Steve barked, "We've had perps back there who caused less damage than you."

Tracy groaned loudly and dragged herself back upright. Danny had learned early on how to block out the tantrums, but Steve pointing it out had drawn him back into the moment.

"I'm bored," she sighed.

"Hi bored, I'm Danny," He said.

"Funny," Steve said blankly.

"I thought so," Danny nodded.

"Urgh," she complained again. The two men rolled their eyes as she leaned her head against the back window with a sigh. "I could have gotten so much work done by now back home."

"Is studying more important than Grace being safe?" Danny asked.

Tracy closed her eyes as she felt a stab of guilt, but she couldn’t find any pun to try and beat the guilt off with so she just kept quiet.

"I thought not," Danny said.

There was a lingering silence in the car for a while after that. It was right up until Tracy quietly said, "I really thought she was safe..."

"We all did," Danny said.

"I mean she texted me this photo when she got here and she looked so relaxed already y’know?" She said.

Steve frowned. "You got a picture? Show me."

Tracy pulled the photo up on her phone and reached it forward so that the men in the front could see it. Danny and Steve leaned in closer together to see it properly.

"She looks really relieved to be away from home," Danny said quietly.

There was a slight pain in his tone which made Steve automatically reach over to pull him into a reassuring hug.

"She’s just excited to be away from school, don't worry," he promised.

"And work. That girl must have been on fifty interviews in the last fortnight and none of them went anywhere," Tracy said.

Danny groaned as he felt a sting of guilt through his chest. He couldn’t get the idea out of his head that if he hadn’t worried and fussed so much when she was young maybe she wouldn't be doing so now. That councillor that had told Steve that Danny's worried was causing him too much stress was echoing through his mind. If he caused _Steve_ stress, what had he done to _Grace_.

"Detective Williams?"

Tracy's voice was soft and hesitant. Maybe it was because Grace was on his mind or maybe it was because she was also a young woman, but the way she spoke reminded him of that time when Grace was eleven and hesitantly asked if she could stay in his house for one more day because she was worried about him. He had just been shot after all. Still, that tone tugged at his heart strings in a way he did not want it to.

"What's up?" He asked.

"I'm, uh, I'm hungry," she muttered.

Danny turned in his seat to look over at her. "Didn’t I tell you to eat before we got in the car?"

Tracy dropped her head low so her chin touched her chest and she shrugged apologetically. Danny sighed and laid his head against the head rest. From here he could glance at Steve without looking away from Tracy.

"What did you bring?" He asked.

Steve showed him the haul of snacks that he had brought along. It was full of shrimp crackers from Kamekona's van and some fruit. None of it seemed particularly filling.

"Really? That’s what you’ve brought for the whole night?" Danny said.

"I packed light!" Steve shrugged.

"Well I can’t stand her whining and I'm getting hungry too so I'll go get some real food and not just, well," Danny said.

He looked around the area to see what kind of food was around and what was still open at this time of night. There was a sandwich shop down the way so that’s where he headed. As he did, he left Steve and Tracy in silence.

Steve waited until the silence brink-ed the edge of awkwardness to break it. "So... what’s a brit like you doing on Oahu anyway?"

Tracy let out a long deep sigh and shook her head. "What’s anyone doing anywhere?"

Steve raised a hand, "That answers nothing."

She shrugged. "Sorry."

Steve frowned again and turned to give her an accusing look so she tilted her head and raised an eyebrow back at him.

"What?"

"Don’t be sorry, just answer my question," he said. "it’s not hard. Of all the colleges around the world, you came here. Not even the mainland, you came here. Why?"

Tracy scoffed and turned away to look out of the window again. Steve rolled his eyes and wriggled back to look out of the window screen again in a huff.

"Fine, don’t tell me," he muttered.

He shuffled back down in his chair and folded his arm in a sulk. Tracy hid her smirk as she eyed the back of his head.

"Why'd you wanna know?" She asked.

"People choose the island for a reason. For Danny it was family, for me, well, its home. I guess I just wanted to know if you're here for a reason, or just a novelty. Haole students tend to cause trouble and if you’re trouble for Grace-"

"I already said I was sorry," she interrupted.

"How would that matter if you’re not someone we can trust? We don’t know anything about you," Steve asked firmly.

"You don’t need to," she said back, mirroring his tone.

"But I'd like to. If only to pass the time," Steve said.

She scoffed again so he scoffed back. Grace deserved a better roommate than some snarky British kid who didn’t trust cops enough to even talk to one. He stewed in that childish attitude for a while before he heard her sigh again in the back of the car.

"I guess... I guess I'm chasing something I can’t guarantee is anywhere."

Steve frowned. That didn’t sound like the usual faked profound comments that he heard from the trouble making students he'd arrested so often before. He glanced at her in the rear-view mirror.

"Like what?" He asked.

She twitched slightly. It was far too late to be talking about feelings. She knew better than most people that night-time was made for saying things that sunlight burned. You always had to be careful who you said them to.

"My aunt."

"Your aunt?" Steve repeated.

"Technically yeah," she shrugged.

Steve knew enough about interviews that if you waited long enough the suspect would just talk. As soon as the ball was rolling it all came out, you just had to give it time.

"When I was a kid my uncle used to visit a lot. My dad was sick so he wanted to stick around just in case he had to say goodbye. He was like a second dad to me at times... anyway he started seeing this girl he used to work with and I just loved her. She was so smart and so pretty and so nice... she made my uncle so happy..."

"But?" Steve asked.

There was another long pause. This time though Tracy show ant sign of responding. She wouldn’t even glance his way. Not that she had done it much while talking anyway. Just enough to feel polite.

"Come on, there's a but coming, what is it?" Steve asked.

"It’s not a but," she said finally. "She made my uncle happy. He was happy."

"Was?" Steve repeated patiently.

"They got engaged just before dad died and then..." she trailed off again with another sigh, lowering her gaze as she did.

Steve tilted his head gently. "Then what?"

"I don’t... really know... I was just a kid... My uncles life was so clouded in mystery. He used to tell me he was a secret agent who went on big time missions and saved the world a hundred times over but no one could know. He was full of stories." A smile crept into her tone as she spoke.

Steve looked up into the rear-view mirror and bit back a grin as he asked, "His name wasn’t Harry was it?"

She furrowed her brow and finally met his reflected gaze. "Harry? No. Why?"

Steve opened his mouth to explain, and then shut it again and shook his head. "No reason."

She gave him a baffled look and then just laughed. She couldn't help herself; it was the only way to pop the bubble of worry and exhaustion engulfing them. Steve grinned back. His bright smile made his eyes sparkle. She edged a little closer without noticing, but Steve did.

"Truth is he just travelled a lot. when he and Aunt Juliet went away there was some kind of accident. I never saw either of them again," she explained.

"That's tough. Losing someone important to you... it’s hard," Steve said sympathetically.

"I think it’s easier when you’re a kid. For a while you don’t really understand and by the time you do you’ve already lived through the pain. The last thing I heard about Juliet was that she had some kind of job out here for a while and..."

She pursed her lips as if it would stop the rest of the sentence from escaping. It sounded stupid in her head, she didn’t want to hear it and be proved right.

"You thought you could find her?" Steve finished for her.

She shrugged and admitted, "I dunno what I thought. I doubt she's here and even if she was, I wouldn't know where to start. Apart from the fact her name is Juliet, I don’t remember much."

"Have you got any pictures? Maybe if you started showing them around you could find her," Steve suggested.

"No, no pictures. she didn’t like them much," she said shaking her head. "All the details are hazy anyway. I guess I just wanted to feel close to her - to both of them, one last time y’know?"

"Yeah," Steve said wistfully, "Yeah I do."

They sat in silence for a moment or two, but it was softer this time. Comforting almost. Then she shook herself out of it and hit the headrest playfully as she leaned forward in her seat.

"But on a more cheerful note, you are Dan- um, Detective Williams huh? You two are pretty great together."

Steve grinned at the mention of his name. "Yeah I'm lucky to have him. He's got great cop, and a great guy to have your back. Saved my ass countless times."

"That's nice. Is it weird though? I mean I’m freaking out not knowing if Grace is ok but you two have to actively enter those situations every day. It sucks for Grace so I can only imagine how bad it must be for you personally. I mean you can actually see the dangers!" She said.

Steve nodded understandly but explained, "I get where you’re coming from but honestly Danny's a great cop. He's got my back and I’ve got his. Plus we’ve got a great team with us for back up so."

"Right. The team. I bet they love having an old married couple in charge. A family feeling," she smirked.

"We only bicker on occasion," he said.

She laughed brightly, "I've seen the argy man! multiple times! and I’ve known you for two days! If you don’t mind me saying, Danno could lighten up."

"Well his daughter has gone missing," Steve pointed out.

Tracy pulled a face. "True, true... What's he usually like? Grace says he tries real hard."

Steve wrinkled his nose as he considered the answers he could give. "He worries. Any time anything happens his mind jumps straight to the worst-case scenario y’know? But it’s good, it prepares him. That’s why he’s so calm right now, in his mind this has happened a thousand times over and he can always save everyone."

When he heard the soft chuckle that Tracy let out, he glanced up at the mirror to see the soft smile that matched it. He frowned.

"What? What’s so funny?"

"Nothing, nothing. It’s just..." she sighed and smiled softly again before she said, "he sounds like Grace."

Steve turned in his chair towards her. An air of concern entered his voice. "Grace worries?"

"Grace was so stressed about everything we had to make her take a break. If we hadn’t, she would have had a break down. Although if we hadn’t none of this would have happened..." Tracy said.

Steve reached out to pat her hand that was still resting on the head rest of Danny’s seat. "Don’t beat yourself up about it kid, sometimes things just happen. There’s no avoiding plans you don’t know, don’t feel bad about it."

"Yeah... yeah you’re right..." she said quietly. Then she forced a smile and added, "Man I think Danny’s lucky to have you too."

Steve turned properly to grin at her. "You do?"

She grinned back. "Yeah. A cool, level head like yourself? I mean sure, you’re volatile - hell you arrested me as soon as you met me-"

"You were withholding information!" He argued.

"I was protecting Grace!" She argued back.

"We could have gotten here a lot sooner if you hadn’t!" He argued back.

Her smile withered, "Yeah well- yeah... yeah, I know. I’m sorry..."

Steve felt a pang of guilt. "Look, it’s all going to be fine alright. You said Grace drove here so as soon as the plates come back, we'll find her."

"Good. Man I hope she's holding out ok," She said.

Steve chuckled. "Gracie’s a tough cookie. She’s been in worse scrapes than whatever this is and she’s always made it out alright. She’s just like her old man."

"We're you and Danny working together long before you got together?" She asked curiously.

"Nah, we were- wait," Steve paused, "got together?"

Tracy blinked innocently, "Is that not an American term? Sorry, um, is hooked up better?"

Steve’s eyes widened. "No- no, no! No, Danny and I aren’t _together_ together! No why, why would you think that?!"

"You aren't?" She frowned in surprise.

"Why would you think we were?!" He demanded.

She shrugged innocently, "I dunno, the constant physical affection, the flirting-"

"Flirting?! What flirting?!" Steve shouted.

"Sorry, I guess I read the lines wrong! I didn’t mean anything by it, you’re just... close," she shrugged again.

"Yeah were close, were really close, but were not dating!" He said firmly.

"Alright!" Tracy said defensively, "bit weird, but alright."

"Why, why, why is that weird?" Steve snipped defensively.

Tracy began to feel slightly uncomfortable. "Well... I’ve seen the way detective Williams looks at you... the way you look at him... I’ve seen the heart eyes emoji too and you guys look the same."

Steve shook his head stubbornly. "No. You’re ridiculous. That’s insane."

"Ok. Whatever you say. You know you better than I do, I guess I was wrong," she shrugged.

The silence suddenly felt a lot more uncomfortable and a lot more volatile. Steve's mind whirled with thoughts. He was remembering ever silly joke about being a couple he, Danny and anyone else had ever made simultaneously. Those date nights where he spent more time with Danny than his date, those dates he cut off early so he could come back to Danny, skipping drinks with Catherine because Danny had had an argument with Rachel - making breakfast together, having a beer in front of the TV together, falling asleep in each other’s arms-

How had it taken him this long to realise?!

Steve's heart beat hard in his chest. His hands became sweaty. He questioned every single thing he had been certain of two minutes ago. Danny had been such a solid and reliable part of his life for so long now he couldn’t picture a life without him, and he didn’t want to. It was such an unquestionable fact that he and Danny would grow old together he hadn't questioned their relationship beyond that.

And Danny never gave him reason to.

It tied his stomach in knots to consider that he could ever feel the way Steve did now. He just couldn’t picture Danny feeling this way about him... but clearly someone could.

He was hesitant to ask, but he felt the words quietly leaving his mouth before he could stop them, "Danny really looks at me like that?"

"I shouldn't have said anything, I don’t wanna get involved anymore," she said.

"But... but you think he does?" He asked.

"Sure, but I also thought Grace would be safe on this island alone so. I’m not exactly batting one hundred right now," she shrugged.

"It's not- I - I don't-"

Steve's uncertain rambling was cut short when Danny opened the car door and climbed into the seat next to him. Tracy wondered if either would notice her climbing out of the window and running the hell away right now. Fortunately Danny's mind was so set on finding Grace he didn’t notice the tension in the car.

"Ok, one chicken salad with tea for you, one bacon, parmesan and mayo on rye for you," Danny said.

As he spoke, he handed out food. In doing so, his finger brushed against Steve's and he felt a hot flush in his cheeks. Steve was a naval officer. Bravest of the brave. He had never felt like this before. It was eating him alive.

"I didn’t ask for anything," he muttered.

Danny shrugged. "You don’t need to, I know what you’re like, you'll blow through your healthy snacks and whine until the sun comes up that you should have brought something more filling. Here. Be filled."

Steve took it hesitantly and peeled at the papers it was wrapped in. Tracy meanwhile had stuffed hers into her mouth to keep herself from screaming.

"And you just... know my order?" Steve asked.

"What’s the matter with you, of course I know your order, I've known you for years, we share a shower, I know you!" Danny insisted impatiently.

Steve gulped, starting at his sandwich. "Yeah... you do..."

Danny frowned at him in confusion as Steve hesitantly took a bite.

"Are you ok?" He asked.

Steve nodded over enthusiastically. "Yeah, I- I'm ok."

Before Danny could speak again Tracy cleared her throat. Partly because she wanted this to finally be over, and party because she had a genuine complaint. She tilted the bottle of iced tea at them.

"Um, I don’t know what this is, but it’s not tea."

Danny's look of confusion, complete with wrinkled nose and tone that said _I’m surrounded by idiots,_ was now directed at her. "What? That’s tea!"

"Tea is hot? This is... not," she said.

"That’s iced tea. Long island iced tea, it's beautiful you'll love it," Danny lied.

She furrowed her brow in disgust. "What kind of savage drinks cold tea?"

"Alright England, y’know what, drink it, don’t drink it, I don’t care, you'll just have to pee later anyway," He said.

"Are you serious? This is seriously the best tea you guys have?" She asked.

"Yes, I’m serious, and I’m not getting out of this car again, were in the middle of an important job ok? Sit down, shut up and drink your tea," Danny said firmly.

Tracy scoffed. She slumped back in her seat and muttered bitterly under her breath, "Heathens."

Danny shot a pointed look at Steve. The same look they had shared a thousand times before, especially when Harry Langsford was around. This time though, Steve refused to meet his eye. He hadn’t eaten his sandwich either.

"Alright, what’s wrong with you?" Danny demanded.

Steve glanced at him, but he couldn't really hold eye contact yet. "How long have we been friends?"

"What?" Danny frowned.

"How long have we been friends?" Steve repeated, firmer.

"I don't know, years. Why?" Danny asked.

"You'd tell me if that changes right?" Steve asked.

"Ch- what are you talking about man, what’s gotten into you? Did you say something to him?" Danny demanded, turning to Tracy accusingly.

Tracy threw her free hand up defensively. "Leave me out of your lovers quarrels please, I'm trying to bring myself to drink this... leaf juice..."

She wrinkled her nose as the yellow-ish liquid with such uncertainty that Danny rolled his eyes again. His attention was drawn back to Steve. Steve was suddenly behaving suspiciously and Danny couldn’t tell why. All he could think was maybe, just maybe, they'd uncovered some information Steve didn’t want to share for some reason.

"Ok, seriously, are you ok?" Danny asked one last time.

"Yeah. Yeah... I’m just feeling..." Steve trailed off, searching for any kind of lie that could put Danny off the scent.

He knew better than anyone that he was a dog with a bone about these things. Steve couldn’t put him off for long. Fortunately Tracy was still paying attention.

"Squiffy," she said, alert in her voice.

"No one asked you," Danny said.

"No, over there! That’s Squiffy, our RA!" She leaned forward and pointed at a shady looking man heading towards the hotel. "What's he doing here?!"

Both men tensed up at the sudden call to action. All arguments were dropped in an instant as they immediately returned to the professional state of mind that they usually had together.

"I don’t know, but it can’t be a coincidence. Let's follow him," Steve said.

He jumped out of the car without so much as a glance back at the others. Danny turned to Tracy first though.

"Stay here," he ordered.

She frowned, "but I-"

"Not up for debate. Stay!" He ordered.

With that, he also leapt from the car and headed off after Steve, attempting to remain casual as he did. She folded her arms and pouted as she slumped back in her seat childishly.

Steve had wandered across the road and gone through the main door of the hotel. Danny went around the back to cut him off from the other side. Both of them were so set on catching the guy, they didn’t notice that he didn’t even enter the hotel. Tracy straightened up in her seat when she spotted him wander casually up to a bush and carefully reach under it. She could see both Danny and Steve through the windows of the hotel, but they were way too far away to catch whatever he was up to. She watches him pick something up, chuck it in the air and catch it.

He was triumphant.

He was smug.

He was going to get away.

Despite the overwhelming urge to remain glued to the seat like Danny had told her to, Tracy opened the door as quietly as she could and kept her eyes on him. As he wandered casually down the street he tugged on his cap to try and mask his face. At one point he turned and Tracy had to take a step behind a pillar to stay out of view. It was in that moment of pause she noticed two things.

The sign that gave her some idea of where he was going, and a homeless man begging for change.

Tracy had a split second to make a choice and take a risky chance. If it back fired she would lose Squiffy and any chance of finding Grace. If it paid off, well, the opposite. She walked over to the homeless man.

"Hey, how would you like to make twenty bucks?"

...

Tracy was feeling pretty good as she hurried down the street back to the car. Steve and Danny were standing by the hood. They appeared to be arguing again. When she called out to them, it became apparent they were arguing about her.

"Where did you go, I told you to stay in the car!" Danny scolded.

"Squiffy stole Grace's car," Tracy explained.

"He's got the car? No wonder we didn’t find him, her stuff wasn’t the target," Steve said.

"If he’s got her car she can’t escape the island," Danny said.

"But the good news-" Tracy began, enthusiastically.

Danny tilted his head at her, "There’s more?"

She nodded, grinning, "Yeah, so I-"

Danny shook his head at her and raised his voice, which melted her smile instantly, "You shouldn't have even been there, what's the matter with you?! You shouldn’t have followed him; you should have told me or Steve what you saw and we could have him in custody now!"

Steve reached a hand out towards him, "Hey, calm down Danno-"

Danny shrugged him off viciously, "No Steve, don’t tell me to calm down ok, my daughter is in danger. She’s lost, she’s alone, and I don't know where or why, and our best lead got away because you didn’t tell us he was gone!"

Danny rubbed his chin, covering his mouth and turned away from her. Tracy took a step backwards in surprise.

"But, Detective Williams-"

"No, I'm done with you. I didn't want you here in the first place, I'm done," Danny said.

"Danno-" Steve began.

"I'm done," Danny repeated.

He threw his hands in the air as he said it and turned his back on both of them. Tracy felt a burning ache in her chest. It could have been the anxiety or the guilt or just the sorrow of the entire situation, but right now it was burnings into a rage against one man. And that man was Danny.

"No! I’m done!" She said, loudly.

Danny turned back, clearly not amused by her attitude. Steve took a step back towards the safety of the car. Danny stared at her over the car door he was leaning on.

"Excuse me?"

He offered it as both a warning and an olive branch. It was an opportunity to take back her tone and pretend that she didn’t have anything to say. Tracy threw it aside and ignored it.

"I get it Daniel. I fucked up. Believe me, that is painfully clear to me," she said, seriously. But her shoulders softened as she continued, "Grace is my friend, and I care about her dearly and she’s missing and that terrifies me. It terrifies me more that someone I know did this. I don't even know Squiffy enough to know his real name, but I never trusted him and I should have followed that gut instinct to avoid this mess altogether and I didn’t. That’s why she’s in danger now. I'm sorry I let her come here alone, but I did. I’m sorry I didn’t obey your orders, but I couldn’t. Now move past that because unless you listen to me you'll waste more time and God knows what will happen to Grace!"

Steve pursed his lips and raised his eyebrows as he watched Danny lean against the top of the car door. Danny stretched his arms out over the top with his hands slightly cupped, a habit he had picked up from constantly having to have the last word.

"Is that a threat?" He asked plainly.

She scoffed, offended, "No you idiot! The moment I realised where he was going, I figured out a plan and I got my phone into Grace's car. Track it on the app and you can find wherever he ditched it."

Danny's jaw dropped, ready to say something, but he let it slack as his thoughts over took his words. Steve leaned forward against the roof of the car. This was a good sign.

"What are the chances he ditched it wherever he’s hiding Grace?" Danny asked Steve quietly.

"Low. But wherever he goes can help us identify where he’s likely to go and where he could be hiding Grace," Steve said.

"It’s a holy grail," Danny said.

"It’s better than nothing," Steve said. He barely even looked at Tracy as he said, "Good job kid."

She sighed with relief. "Thanks McGarret."

Steve opened up the car door for her and said, "Call me Steve."

Tracy straightened up in surprise and stared at him. Steve smirked and threw her a wink. Tracy's smile grew back slowly.

"Thanks Steve," she said.

She climbed in the backseat and he slammed the door shut behind her. Neither paid any mind to Danny's eyeroll in the front seat.

"Can we just go please? Open this stupid app and tell us where we're going."


	4. Chapter 4

The trouble with tailing a suspect is trying to stay unnoticed. To keep up with Squiffy's car Steve sped up too before the lights could change, and Tracy cheered every red they ran. Danny was much less amused by them.

"There’s no point following the suspect if you kill us before we catch up with him!" Danny complained.

"I can slow down if you want but we'll lose him and if we lose him we lose our last leads!" Steve warned.

"Don't slow, take the corner on two wheels! This is great!" Tracy cried before bursting into laughter.

Danny tightened his grip on the handle above the window and grunted as she laughed.

"This is your fault," Danny said.

"What’s my fault?" Steve asked.

"That!" Danny gestured to Tracy, "She's got Mcgarrett-itus, excited by high speed chases and risking death! That comes from _you_ y’know."

"Mcgarrett-itus?!" Steve laughed.

"Exactly. Some people call it Steve Syndrome, but-" Danny grunted as they hit a pothole that caused the suspension to rocket, "it doesn’t have the same ring to it."

They whirled down the street after the suspects’ car, slowing only to take the corner ("Spoil sport!") and regain control so they could blend in and remain covert. Wherever they were being led it was out of town, and Squiffy knew the island well enough to use the backroads. He didn’t quite cotton on to the fact he was being followed though.

In fact he led them right to an abandoned warehouse by the bay, where there was another two cars parked and almost no surveillance equipment around. It was a black spot. It was the perfect place to hide a kidnapped girl. They moved around the block to park out of sight. Things were beginning to feel a lot more daunting to Tracy now.

"This place is huge and it might be packed with hostiles, we need eyes on the situation," Steve said.

"I'm willing to get myself caught and give you a tip off for how many are there," she offered.

"That’s the stupidest idea I’ve ever heard and I’m shocked it didn’t come from him," Danny said.

"No, I agree. We don’t even have a wire, how would you communicate back to us?" Steve asked sarcastically.

"Fine," Tracy sighed, as if this hadn’t been her hopes all along, "I guess my role in all this is to-"

"Stay in the car, exactly," Steve said.

"Fine," she said.

Steve narrowed his gaze on her for a moment and then turned back to Danny.

"Danny, stay here. Keep low and try not to draw attention to yourself. I’m going in," he said.

"Less stupid, but lets keep working," Danny said.

"We need eyes on the situation, I'm trained, I'm armed-" Steve began.

"You're insane," Danny bickered.

"Do we really have time to argue about this guys?" Tracy interrupted.

"Guys? No. No guys. You can call him _Steve_ if he wants, but you still call me Detective Williams, not _guys_ ," Danny said firmly.

"Yeah, check that, got it, but how do you expect to get in? The doors have got to be posted and the air vents aren't big enough for those shoulders-"

Tracy poked Steve's biceps pointedly, winning her glares from each man but for two very different reasons.

"Can you not poke my partner please?" Danny asked, but at the same time Steve said,

"You think I can't crawl through vents, I was in the navy, I do this for training!"

"While that is true, it's still loud and unnecessarily risky. If they hear you and shoot you don’t have space to escape. We just need a glimpse through a window to count hostiles and-"

"God I wish Grace had her phone," Tracy groaned.

"Why, so we could call her and let them all know were outside? Think before you speak, it’s all I ask," Danny said.

Tracy rolled her eyes back at Danny, which annoyed him more than anything else that had happened that day.

Steve on the other hand, took the moment of distraction to say, "Ah, screw this," and roll out of the car.

Danny barely had time to react as he scrambled to catch the back of Steve's shirt. His stupid, thin, non-bulletproof shirt. It slipped out of Danny's fingers and the door slammed shut in his face. He punched the dashboard in frustration.

"Dammit! Why's he always got to be so damn stubborn?!" He growled.

In the back-seat Tracy pursed her lips. She turned in the seat to kneel up and look through the back window to watch him go. Steve slunk through the carpark, keeping low to stay out of sight. Tracy watched curiously as he crept along like a puma. He was trained for this, and he was good at it. Danny glanced out of the rear-view mirror instinctively, the way he always did to keep an eye on Steve. He was disappointed but not surprised to see her blocking the view.

"Hey, keep low. Behind the seat, below the glass. It really reduces the amount of bullets aimed at your head," he said.

"You think they’re armed?" Tracy asked over her shoulder.

"You keep kneeling up like that and we'll find out when they shoot you," he said.

Tracy huffed, but slid down in the seat so her head was below the cushions of the seat and out of the way of the glass windows.

"How am I supposed to see anything now?" She complained.

"You’re a civilian, you’re not supposed to see anything. And honestly, half the things we see, you don't want to," Danny said drily.

Tracy looked over at him for a second, and then let her gaze fall away and her shoulders droop. She sank low into the chair like a grumpy kid sulking over not getting her own way, but she didn't argue. There was a sense of danger in the air that she didn't want to distract from. They had to focus to save Grace. She couldn't make a mistake that risked her safety again.

Danny glanced at her in the mirror of the sun visor. She looked so forlorn that he felt a stab of guilt just to see it.

"Do you really want to see him sneaking around like a fool?" Danny asked quietly.

"I want to know if he sees anything," Tracy muttered.

There was a silence for another moment before Danny said, "Use the mirrors."

"Mirrors?" She repeated.

"Wriggle down so you can see one of the mirrors. Watch him through those," Danny said.

Tracy was hesitant, but she did as she was told. She wriggled down until she could see the window Mcgarrett was sneaking up on reflected in the sun visor. Her eyes were glued to the way he crept up to the window, watching keenly as he peered in. The window was just high enough that he had to hop onto his tiptoes to see through it. In any other situation, Danny would have found it adorable.

Now he just wanted him back here in the safety of this car. And he wanted Grace here too.

Danny and Tracy watched Steve sneak low back past the window and towards the back of the building. Danny's chest tightened as Steve disappeared out of sight. The longer he was gone the longer they held their breaths. Both felt the growing tension was the worries laid heavily on their chest...

Then he suddenly yanked the other door open and made them both jump.

"Christ!" Danny yelped.

"No, just me," Steve smirked.

"Not funny Steve," Danny sighed.

"Sorry, I'm just giddy! I saw her Danny, I saw her and she’s fine!" Steve grinned brightly.

Danny fell through all the stages of grief backwards, relief flooded through him and a glow of utter joy shone through him. He threw his head back against the chair and beamed.

"Oh thank God!" He grinned.

"She's tied up and there’s three assailants inside, but she's alright!" Steve beamed.

"I’m so happy I could kiss you right now!" Danny grinned.

"Maybe wait until _after_ we save Grace," Steve winked.

Danny was so overjoyed at the news that he didn’t even care about the flirty little wink that would usually send his dumb heart fluttering. He grappled at his belt.

"Let’s go!" He said.

"Uh, we might need some back up. There’s only two of us after all," Steve said.

Danny snorted as he pushed past him and headed to the boot, where they had left the guns they borrowed earlier. After all, they needed to go in armed.

"Two of us against three of them? We’ve beaten worse odds before," Danny grinned.

"Love the enthusiasm, but I’m serious," Steve said.

"So am I," Danny said, picking up his gun. "that’s my daughter in there. by all means call for back up, but you cannot and will not stop me from going in there and rescuing my daughter!"

"Yeah!" Tracy cheered, getting swept along.

"Not you!" Danny said.

Tracy made no attempt to argue. Instead she just nodded and knelt back up on the chair like an excited toddler. She couldn’t help grinning, even though being so close to those guns sent icy alarm right through her veins.

"No, you stay here. Take that phone and speed dial two. Danny, put your safety vest on," Steve ordered.

"And when we say stay here, we mean here. In this car," Danny piled on.

Tracy nodded as she reached for the satellite phone in the front seat. "Yeah, I got that."

"With the doors locked," Danny added.

"Alright," Tracy nodded.

"Inside the car," Danny added.

"I'm not an idiot y’know," She warned.

"And you absolutely, positively, definitely cannot, I repeat _not_ drive this car through any walls. This isn’t a film, that won’t help, it will just cause more casualties and more paperwork!" Steve warned firmly as he cocked his gun.

Tracy's face fell and she sunk back into her seat, disappointed. "Ah phewy."

Danny rolled his eyes as Steve smirked to himself. "Alright Donald. And remember, duck."

Tracy failed to hide the smirk even as she tried. "Funny. Tell Grace I'm waiting for her," Tracy said.

Steve shot her a wink as a promise and left Danny to reach up and slam the trunk shut. As they headed towards the warehouse she heard their muffled conversations.

"What do you know about Donald Duck?"

"Loads!"

"Why?!"

"Charlie loves Ducktales."

"I know he does, he’s my son. Why do you know it?"

"When he watches it at our place all the time, and you gotta admit that that theme tune is catchy."

"Can we focus?"

"You started it!"

Tracy ran a hand through her head and moaned softly as she did. She was itching to leave the car and help rescue Grace, but they were Five-0 right? Professionals. They could handle this. She dialled two on speed dial anyway.

Steve came in through the first door with his gun close to his chest. He kept close to the wall ready to creep up onto the action. He could see one guy in a hoodie standing over Grace, who was still bound and chained to the floor. She was following him with her eyes as he traced back and forth across the floor. That had to be the mastermind, but Steve had no idea who it was.

Danny came through the back and walked straight into a meeting. There were two of them standing by the door smoking cigarettes. Danny flashed them a cheesy smile.

"Well hi guys," he said.

They threw aside their cigarettes and grabbed their weapons. He managed to fire off two rounds, hitting on in the legs before one wrestled his gun away and the other pointed theirs straight at his head. He grunted as they marched him towards Grace.

"Danno!" She gasped in delight to see him.

Danny gave her the warmest smile he could muster while being marched at gunpoint.

"Heya sweetheart, are you alright?" He asked.

"I think mom was right Danno. I should have gone to Indiana State," Grace said.

Danny forced a chuckle, "cute. Real cute."

The first guy looked around the room. "Any signs of back up?"

"No. Robbie said he wasn't followed either," the woman holding onto Danny's arm said.

"Robbie's obviously full of crap!" The first guy yelled.

"Hey, come on duke, he just got shot, leave him alone," she argued.

Steve stepped forward for a clearer vantage, and accidentally knocked a screw into a pipe. The clatter alerted Duke who spun around, gun in hand. Grace flinched as he did.

"I hope your back up is more powerful than this idiot. Come out with your hands up," he called.

"Not likely pal," Steve called back.

"I'd listen to him, he's err, he’s not right in the head," Danny said.

"Shut up! Come out with your hands up or your partner here can say goodbye to his kneecaps!" Duke called.

"Kneecaps? Did you kids just watch a cheesy movie and think you could start a crime ring for extra credit or something?" Danny asked.

Steve stepped out from the shadows and Duke pointed his gun at him, so Steve pointed straight back. Duke had a peach fuzz moustache and a brand-new apple watch. He couldn't have been much more than twenty. Steve had been shooting things since before he was born. He was confident who would win a shootout, but Grace and Danny were too close to risk it.

"You’re under arrest," Steve said.

"I don’t think so," Duke snorted, so the other girl laughed too.

"You're lucky he’s just arresting you, you hurt my little girl, I’d have shot you, I really wanna shoot you," Danny said.

"Quiet you! Drop your weapon!" Duke shouted.

"Not gonna happen," Steve said plainly.

Duke cocked his weapon pointedly, and the echo perfectly masked the creak of the skylight window opening.

"Drop the weapon," he ordered.

Steve felt another gun press against his back. Despite the blood trailing down his leg, Robbie had managed to haul himself up and get hold of a gun.

"Squiffy I presume," Steve said.

"I'll take that," he said.

Steve reluctantly allowed them to take away his weapon. Danny edged closer to Grace, subtly shielding her away from any harm that might be about to come their way. For now though they seemed pretty focused on Steve. Danny reached down so Grace could wrap her free fingers around his for comfort. Steve raised his hands to shoulder level to surrender.

"What's your plan anyway?" He asked.

"Our plan? You think we're just going to tell you our plan?!" The girl scoffed.

"They don’t have a plan," Grace said to Danny.

"I can see that," Danny said.

"We do so have a plan!" The girl lied argumentatively.

"Youve got two law officers and their daughter hostage at gunpoint. How do you think you're gonna get away with it?" Steve asked.

"Easy. No one knows you’re here. You don’t have back up, your barely armed - what do you think you’re going to do? All you have is hope and hand cuffs!" Duke sneered.

"I keep telling you, _Tracy_ knows I'm here," Grace argued.

This time it wasn’t only Danny who rolled his eyes at the mention of her name.

"And I keep telling you, she is _not_ going to help you!" The girl sneered.

"You don't know Tracy," Grace said plainly.

"She’s got a point. Tracy is as irritating and single minded as Steve here," Danny said.

"It’s true," Steve nodded.

"But she’s also as loyal. She's not about to let us give up on Grace. Not to mention, she's _my_ daughter! Our team will look for us, her friends will nag HPD to come find us, what do you do then?" Danny asked.

The criminals shared uncertain looks between each other. Squiffy was already slumped against a wall and losing a lot of blood. It was looking more and more like an uneven fight. They were rapidly losing the upper hand.

"They could always kill us and be done for three counts of murder," Steve suggested.

"Because cop killers always fair so well in custody," Danny said sarcastically.

"Famously," Steve agreed.

"Shut up! Shut up! Shut up!"

Duke stamped his feet like he was about to have a tantrum. Grace squeezed Danny's finger tighter. Duke began to gesticulate with the gun, and it unsettled them all. Even his conspirators.

"All we wanted was to make some money by stealing some lousy, stuck up students laptops, but _no-o-o-o_ , your roommate had to go and ruin that venture! And when we try to kidnap _her_ to scare her out of our hair, we got you instead!"

Grace rolled her eyes, having heard this a dozen times already, Steve suddenly remembered Danny complaining about this four times the night he met her (“Grace is so proud of her for it! what about me? Her dad! I do that kind of thing six times a day for a living! Where’s my pride?!”) and bit back a laugh. The pieces were falling into place, and the irony amused him. less amused, like always, was Danny.

"Hold on, this entire thing is just a big case of mistaken identity?!" Danny interrupted, scandalised.

"They never wanted Grace at all Danno, Tracy was always the target," Steve said.

Steve's gaze had been fixated on a dark shape cautiously making its way along the tightropes of the pipes and high shelves above them. He traced its path carefully so he could prepare himself for action.

"Now if the only way to get back on track is to kill all of you and put ourselves back on track-" Duke raised an arm to aim the gun straight at Steve's forehead.

"Uh, hold on, what?" The girl yelped in alarm.

"Then that's what we'll do," Duke said.

Danny squeezed Grace's hand back cautiously.

"Any last words?" Duke sneered.

Steve glanced over at the dark figure. She had found a long, fixed rope, and was already about to leap from the top shelf down to join them.

"Just one," Steve said, "Duck."

Duke frowned in confusion and that split second of bafflement brought Tracy enough time to adjust her position in the air to kick him in the chest as she swung down on her rope. She very quickly lost her grip on the rope as her entire body weight slammed into Duke, causing both of them to crash down onto the floor. It was a lot less graceful than Tracy had imagined, but just as dramatic. The loud crack could have been a wooden pallet, but the howl of agony from Duke suggested otherwise.

In the mishap of the moment, Danny threw back an elbow to bash the girl holding the gun at him in the chin, throwing her backwards. He snatched the weapon away as she fell. Once he was certain they were secure, his attention instantly set to untying Grace.

"So all this mess, and you really wanted Tracy all along huh?" Steve said to Duke.

Tracy stood up and dusted herself off, saying, "Good news boys, I'm here. Now put down your weapon-" Tracy snatched the gun from Steve's holster and aimed it at Squiffy as he crawled across the floor towards him. When he found himself facing a barrel himself, he choose to freeze instead. She smirked.

"that’s a good lad."

"You led them here didn’t you?!" The girl spat.

"Next time you wanna kidnap someone, make sure you know who you’re getting first," Tracy smirked.

"That’s good advice, also good advice, _don’t_ kidnap people!" Danny shouted.

Steve let out a low chuckle that warmed into an affectionate laugh as he slung an arm around Tracy's shoulders.

"Book em Danno," he said.

"Book em?! I’m gonna strangle them!" Danny threatened.

"Maybe you should book em Steve-o," Tracy said.

"Steve-o?" Steve snorted.

"Yeah. Danno, Steve-o, five-o!" She grinned.

"Youve got too much adrenaline in you," Steve said.

He reached out to Grace now that Danny had freed her. She had buried herself into Danny's arms, but when Steve patted her shoulder she adjusted her position to offer him a watery grin. Steve leaned down to kiss her hairline.

"I'll book em for you. Just this one," he said to Danny.

Danny wrapped his arms tighter around Grace, "I appreciate it."

As Steve wandered off to deal with the arrests, Danny took Grace and Tracy outside to wait for the backup and ambulance crews that were on their way. Tracy noticed Grace wrapping her arms around her chest and edged over.

"Are you ok hun? You look cold," she said gently. "Here, take my hoodie."

She peeled off her hoodie and wrapped it around Grace. Grace threw herself against Tracy, clinging to her like an old teddy bear.

"Thank you so much for finding me!" She said into Tracy's shoulder.

Tracy's mouth opened but no words came out. Tears edged her eyes as she finally managed to crackle out, "Hey, what are friends for?"

Danny finished an interview and wandered over to where the girls were sitting on the bonnet of Grace's car together.

"I told you to stay outside," he said to Tracy.

Tracy gulped. She nodded in agreement but said, "If I had, you'd be dead by now."

Danny nodded just as she had, and said, "I know."

The two of them shared a few lingering seconds of eye contact, after which Danny smirked. It made Tracy's chest warm to finally see him smile.

"Hey! Come here!" Steve called.

He was over on the other side of the area, and he beckoned at them in the air. Danny looked at Tracy pointedly when she didn’t move.

"He means you," he said.

"Me?!" Tracy repeated in alarm.

Danny nodded and batted the air to encourage her to go. reluctantly, Tracy slid off of the car and wandered over to where mcgarrett was standing.

"First of all, I'm sorry I didn’t stay in the car," She said earnestly.

Steve shrugged carelessly, "Ah you’re not the first. And you didn’t shoot anyone so that's less paperwork."

The care freeway he said it really eased his fear that was making her chest ache. He folded his arms across his chest and smiled down at her.

"I wanted to ask you if you’ve ever considered joining the force?" He said.

Tracy blinked at him in surprise. "Cops? Me?! No. Never."

"I think you could be pretty good. And if not you can always join us in Five-0. We can always use a little fresh blood to keep us on our toes," he said.

Tracy slowly wrinkled her nose and shook her head. "I don’t think so."

Steve's smile faded a little. "Why not?"

"Didn’t you see me out there?! I’m reckless, I’m brash, I'm over protective! As awesome as it was to swing in like Tarzan and kick that guy in the face, I feel like I’d be a liability," she said, seriously.

"Oh for sure," Steve nodded, "But you’ve got those instincts that you can hone and be a great detective."

"A great detective could find her aunt," she sighed.

"I wouldn’t give up on that just yet either if I was you," Steve said, knowingly.

Tracy hadn't caught on to his tone, but an idea came to her that made her grin, "Then what if I became a PI? Then I could bypass the law altogether and keep _you_ on your toes."

Steve laughed and nodded again. "Y’know for some reason I think you'll do well as a PI."

Tracy smiled affectionately at Steve as he smirked back at her. "Thanks Steve."

"Anytime. Just, never try to take my gun again ok? It’s a criminal offence. Next time I'll have to book you for it," he warned.

She laughed and nodded. "Promise... Grace is lucky to have you as an uncle y’know."

"I know kid. I know," Steve winked again.

Tracy felt a warm sense of pride as she wandered back over towards Grace and Danny. She leaned against the bonnet beside them, looked back at Steve and sighed warmly. The other two looked over, waiting for the comment.

"Y’know, he really does look like that grey slime on the wall at home."

Both William's burst into laughter, which was a well needed release as the sun rays began to rise up over the hills again, and a new day began.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Steve's least favourite ducktales character is Launchpad, because he hates every time Launchpad crashes by accident because he thinks hes better than that. His favourite is Donald because navy boys have to stick together.   
> Danny has almost no opinion on ducktales but says his favourite character is Launchpad just to annoy Steve. Really it's Agent 22.


	5. Chapter 5

A cheer went up that filled La Mariana as Tracy held the door open for Grace. The two of them had rested up at home for the entire day, and now they wanted to blow off some steam with the people who cared most. And the rest of Five-0 apparently. The introductions ran through smoothly and once Tracy had settled in with the others, Danny took Grace aside for a well needed talk. They sat over in a booth by the back door and Steve leaned on the wall behind where Tracy now sat so he could casually drink his beer but keep an eye on them at the same time.

"How have you been holding up?" Danny asked gently.

"Its not my first rodeo?" Grace shrugged.

As she did she wrapped one arm across her stomach, the way she always did when she was anxious. Danny tilted his head and waited for her to continue. Grace sighed and bowed her head.

"Honestly... I'm just embarrassed I fell for Squiffy "coincidentally" being on the island at the same time as me. I shouldn’t have agreed to that drink with him, but-"

Danny's hand moved to cup hers gently, "Hey, hey, don't worry about that. It's not your fault, he didn't even realise you were the wrong person, ok? You're not to blame for any of this, its all on him."

"Yeah, I know Danno," Grace muttered.

As the words left his mouth Danny found himself glancing over at Tracy. A bubble of guilt hit his chest, only worsened when Steve raised a pointed eyebrow at him from across the bar. Steve didn't need to use words to say I told you so which was infuriating, but it was worse when he was right. Danny made mental note to apologise to Tracy properly later.

He was pulled back to attention when Grace's fingers slipped away from his. "I’m ok. I promise."

"See, honey I know you’re not," Danny said seriously.

"I am, this whole thing-" Grace began to argue.

Danny cut her off by gently raising his hand again, "No, I'm not- I’m not talking about the kidnapping. I mean the money stuff."

Grace slunk down in her chair slightly and tried hard not to bite her lip. She had been reliably informed that this was her tell, and she was trying not to let on how much she worried to anyone.

"You know you don’t have to push yourself so hard to get a job right?" Danny ensured.

"Yeah, I know, but..." Grace trailed off.

"There’s no need to worry about finances either. That’s my job. I do the worrying and the fussing, and you do the living and the having fun. Just, being responsible with it. It would be really embarrassing to have to arrest my own daughter," Danny warned.

Grace let out a laugh. "Danno!"

"No it would, id have to make uncle Steve do it," Danny insisted.

She laughed again which made Danny smile, which made Steve's chest ache. He washed that away with another gulp of beer, but it only moved to the pit of his stomach instead. He had known Danny way too long to be feeling this uncomfortable.  
Grace took a deep breath and pushed both her hands across the table to take control of the conversation. Danny allowed her to do so with a soft smile. He wasn’t expecting to hear her turn find same kind of soft serious tone he usually offered.

"Danno, I'm allowed to worry about financial problems. Especially my own. I’m growing up, these are problems I have to learn to face. I know I let them get on top of me but you don’t have to shield me from them entirely!"

"Well, sure, but-" Danny began.

"And I _want_ a job. I want to prove I can be responsible. Like Tracy," she urged.

Danny glanced at Tracy again, just in time to see her burp into her forearm. It did not fill him with confidence. Not until the warmer, more affectionate addition of, "Like you."

Danny's heart swelled slightly as he looked into his daughters eyes and suddenly realised that somehow, in some way, between him, Rachel and yes even Steve, they had done something right.

"Like me?" He repeated warmly.

"Yeah. You always said your police work is what you were proud of-"

"But I was proudest of-"

"Me and Charlie, I can finish my own sentences yknow, I'm pretty good at it."

Danny laughed at her gentle scold but nodded apologetically. She was just like her mother sometimes. "I know, I'm sorry."

Grace tilted her head at him in the same way he had tilted his head at her a hundred times before. It made Steve chuckle to see them together sometimes, because they'd have entire conversations constantly tilting their heads back and forth.

"Danno," she said seriously, "its time for you to stop worrying so much and let me take some of it on. I’m grown up now. Its time for you to be happy."

The word shot a bullet through his chest. He tightened his jaw and did everything he could to fight the instinct telling him to glance at Steve. Happiness wasn’t far away, but it was no where near as close as he wanted.

"I am happy," he lied gently, "And I will never stop worrying about you."

"Neither will I. About you I mean," Grace said.

"Will you just promise me you won't take a job that’s too stressful? I want you to be free to focus on your studies. That’s the real financial issue here," Danny asked.

"I promise I'll take whatever job I can get. I have to get experience somewhere right?" Grace sighed.

"Right..." Danny said slowly.

It ached to know that there was very little Danny could do to help Grace out of that situation. Accepting the fact he couldn’t always be there to fix everything for her was something he had never quite managed to do. But Grace stood up and he pulled him close. She laid her head against his chest to let him wrap his arms around her, burying her in his body. Steve took another drink and tried not to think about doing the same to Danny. It warmed the guilt out of him.

"What’s that for?" He asked as she pulled away.

"Because I love you Danno," she smiled.

Danny smiled back. "I love you too monkey."

When they returned to the larger, rounded booth the others were crammed in together, Tracy stood up to let Grace sit, then sat on the edge of the seat beside her. Danny took his beer from Steve and leaned against the other wall, so he and Steve were book ends for their booth. A man in a yellow Hawaiian shirt behind the bar beamed at Danny as he returned to the table. Danny tried not to smile back but he had grown fond of the man.

"Hey Danny man! Aloha!" Rick beamed.

He reached out to hug Danny so Danny reluctantly allowed him one arm in return. Steve gave him an approving grin despite the jealousy sparking in his stomach. Steve still remembered what Danny was like when he first arrived. They had both changed a lot since the day they me.

"I was just introducing myself to these fine folk. It seems like there's more of you every time you visit," Rick chuckled.

"What are you complaining for, its good for business!" Lou pointed out.

"That it is Lou, that it is! Plus it's always a pleasure to see you," Rick said warmly.

Lou chuckled and raised his beer in agreement so the others laughed along too. It was only Tracy who seemed to be busy thinking. She cleared her throat and shuffled to see Rick better.

"So, you own this business?" She checked.

Rick gave her a puzzled chuckle but nodded, "Why yes I do little lady. You’re a long way from home aren’t you?"

"Yeah, yeah, I'm British," She shrugged.

She opened her mouth again to try and continue but Rick was already talking again, with a bigger, brighter grin on his face.

"Yknow I have a friend who’s also British! She should be here any time now really," He grinned.

"Cool, cool, cool... say Rick," Tracy said, pointedly to shut him up. He got the message and listened, "you in need of a barmaid, or waitress, or cleaner or something by any chance?"

"Why, are you in need of a job?" Rick asked.

Danny paused mid-sip of his drink. Grace elbowed Tracy. Neither of them were overly keen for her to work where he frequently drank, but at the same time, she wanted a job...

"No- well, yeah actually, I probably am, can I work on my visa?" Tracy paused for a moment to think before remembering she was talking and shaking her head, "Never mind, anyway, its for my girl here. She needs a job."

Tracy slung an arm around Grace. Reluctantly, Grace leaned forward so Rick could see her better, and awkwardly waved. Rick wrinkled his nose.

"Look, ladies, I'm m not looking to turn this into a student bar," he said, but there was an apologetic tone in his voice.

Danny smirked and finished his mouthful of beer. He wrongly assumed that Ricks answer would stop the conversation. He realised he was wrong when both girls burst into laughter.

"Cops drink here it’ll never be a student bar," Tracy said.

"It costs money, it'll never be a student bar," Grace said.

"Its too far from campus to be a student bar," Tracy said.

"It's too homely to be a student bar!" Grace laughed.

Rick straightened up at that comment. He couldn’t hide the pride that it brought out in him, not that he really tried to.

"Why thank you. That’s exactly the vibe I was going for, homely. The spirit of ohana yknow," he said.

"Yeah, yeah, Ohana cuz!" Tracy beamed. She raised her eyebrows and tilted her head towards him, pointedly. "Help a cousin out?"

A ripple of laughter ran across the table as Rick found himself caught in his own trap. To his credit though, Rick pulled up a chair. He sat at the edge of the table at the same level as Grace. Tracy stood up to give them more space together.

"You got any experience?" Rick asked.

"In which one, waitressing, bartending or cleaning?" Grace smirked at Tracy.

Tracy shrugged. She wouldn’t apologise, she got Grace an interview!

"Which one you applying for?" Rick asked.

Grace let out a long sigh as she thought and began, "Well I was a waitress at Danno's restaurant when it started out-"

Rick paused to look up at Danny. "You had a restaurant?"

Both Steve and Danny chorused, "Don’t ask."

That, obviously, intrigued him more. He glanced over at Junior and Tani who refused any more information. Adam just laughed. It was Lou who mouthed, "massive failure" that explained anything. Rick chuckled knowingly and reached up to pat Steve's arm.

"Been there. Its a hard business. Hey, don’t worry though, better men than you have lost more," Rick assured them.

Steve shook his head and drank more instead of replying. Rick smirked and gave his attention back to Grace.

"And I can clean. I can clean well," She said.

"Yeah she can, you should see our dorm, cleanest of all of them! which, isn't saying much I know, but the girl can clean!" Tracy interrupted.

Steve nudged her and Grace shot her a warning look so Tracy mimed zipping her lips.

"You got any references?" Rick asked. "She's got Five-0 behind her," Danny said.

"And me. I'll vouch for her for anything!" Tracy agreed.

"I know how important it is to give back what you get. Its helped me out a lot in the past, so its important to me that whenever I get a chance to help, I take it. I’m very helpful," Grace said.

It was a last ditch attempt to earn some favour, but she did mean it. Helping Tracy had made Tracy help her to escape to a holiday without her parents knowing, and watching her father help Steve had earned her a brother and an uncle.  
And Rick was always one to lend a hand to anyone who needed it.  
He eyed her thoughtfully. Part of him thought about asking TC his opinion, but he also knew he could talk him round...

"When can you work?" He asked.

"Whenever I don't have class," she promised.

"It'll be minimum wage though."

Danny rested a hand on Rick's shoulder and warned, "Will it?"

"Danno!" Grace hissed.

Danny let his hand fall away and raised them apologetically to Grace. The others around the table laughed again. Adam nudged Danny playfully and gave him an approving grin. Rick himself chuckled too.

"Alright. As long as you’re here on time and you can handle yourself in a drunk crowd-" Rick began.

"We're students dude, that's like all we ever do," Tracy said.

"Then you’re hired," Rick said.

He held out a hand for her to shake. Tracy and Steve cheered under their breaths and Grace utterly lit up. She took his hand and shook it firmly. A round of applause filled the table.

"Alright! Gracie got her first job! Woooo!" Tracy cheered.

"To celebrate, next rounds on Rick!" Tani cheered.

Rick laughed loudly but he agreed. The table devolved into the usual mix of multiple conversations and laughter without any real consequence. Danny laid a hand on Tracy's shoulder and cleared his throat.

“You, err, you did good kid. Well done,”

Tracy smiled warmly at him, “thanks Detective Williams, that means lot.”

Danny tried not to look like he was swallowing bleach as he had to admit he was wrong. He stared down at the table and blinked the pain out of his eyes.

“Call me Danny.”

Tracy's eyes widened at him in surprise. The smile that grew slowly across her face eased the ache in his chest from Steve watching them. Danny had known Steve long enough to know that he could not let an opportunity to gloat at Danny admitting he was wrong pass him by. Much to his surprise though, when he looked up Steve was just watching him, admiringly. The same way Ed used to watch them cooking in the kitchen. That made his chest ache more. Steve downed the last of his drink and took the opportunity to approach Danny. He laid a hand on this shoulder and then let his arm slither across his shoulders and pulled him close to whisper in his ear.

“Was that so hard?”

Danny rolled his eyes but said nothing. His jaw was clenched tight and his heart hit his ribs. His hands were clammy behind his beer bottle and his knees were weak. The warmth of Steve’s breath on his cheek reminded him of the hammock and he could not stay in this situation. When he tried to pull away though, Steve held on a little tighter.

"Hey man, can I talk to you?" He asked quietly.

Danny glanced at Steve's lips and back to his eyes, pretending being this close didn’t bother him. He shrugged.

"Sure."

As the two of them slunk off towards the back exit, Grace nudged Tracy excitedly. Tracy followed her gaze, and sniggered. Grown ups were so oblivious. The two girls raised their drinks to clink them together, feeling slightly smug that their assumptions were being proved correct. Charlie already thought of Steve as a father, and Grace wanted her dad to always be as happy as he was with Steve. If shed known all it took was getting kidnapped, she might have risked it ages ago!  
Rick cheered again when another group of his friends came wandering into the bar. The two girls were still trying to catch a glimpse of the men outside so paid them no mind. Not until they heard him call out excitedly.

"Hey Higgy! come here I want you to meet someone!"

Rick half dragged a woman over towards the table. Tracy assumed it was someone else on the table so glanced around to see who else would react.

"Higgy this is my new employee Grace-" Rick began.

"Your what?" TC called from the bar.

"And her british friend Tracy! and Tracy this is-"

Rick was cut off by a low gasp. "Tracy?"

Tracy's eyes widened and her heart stopped. She turned her head to look up at the woman before her. Her hair was shorter and she had put on a little weight, but that was only to be expected after all these years. The Hawaiian sun had browned her skin a little, but she other than that she was exactly the same. Shocked, but exactly the same. It took her breath away a little. Behind them Rick and his others friends were sharing a confused look.

"Aunt Juliet?" Tracy breathed, just as shocked.

" _Aunt Juliet?!_ " A course rang out behind them.

...

Steve held the door open for Danny to pass through. They wandered down towards the edge of the marina so that they would be standing next to the water as the sun was setting around them. The golden trickle of light dappled across the water surface, sparkling as the boats bobbed quietly together with the waves. Steve leaned against the barrier, looking out across the water. Danny leaned beside him, closing the gap between them as much as he dared to.

After a while Danny asked, "So, are we gonna talk, or are we here to count the boats? Because, its not that I don’t like hanging out with you, but-"

"How are you holding up?" Steve asked.

Danny stared at him for a moment. He had thought that the fact Danny spent the entire day sleeping in his ex-wife's house with his son watching Ducktales downstairs and his daughter eating her weight load of food in the kitchen would be answer enough. He had missed his kids and he was exhausted. He didn’t need to miss out on the wind down to tell him that.

"Grace is safe. She’s employed. She’s got good friends. Charlie's fever broke and now he’s getting better... What’s to worry about?" He asked.

"I don’t know, what?" Steve asked.

Danny frowned. "Nothing."

"Nothing?"

"Is that really that much of a surprise? That I've got nothing to worry about?"

"Yes because I know you Danno. You don't stop worrying. There’s always something. What is it?" Steve asked seriously.

Danny glanced Steve up and down. From that stupid chiselled chin to those ridiculous toned biceps, he was a walking nightmare. Danny hated how well Steve knew him.

"You," he admitted.

Steve looked surprised. "Me?"

"You. You’ve been quiet since we left Oahu. You think I didn’t notice because I was out of my mind thinking about Gracie, but I saw it," he said.

"Saw what?" He asked.

"There’s something on your mind. I don’t know if its your mom or sister, or-" Danny began.

Steve gulped. He stared straight into Danny's pretty blue eyes, and tried To blot out his button nose and strong jaw. He crossed his arms across his chest to keep his heart in its place.  
Danny knew him too well.

"No its none of them. It's you," he admitted.

Danny was surprised. "Me? What'd I do? Are you- Steve-" Danny reached out to dramatically grab his arm, "Are you breaking up with me?"

Steve laughed and shrugged him off. The joke rang a little too painfully through his chest to think about it. He looked down at his shoes as he continued though.

"Remember the other day, in the hammock?"

"No, no I don’t, what hammock?" Danny asked dryly.

"I'm serious," Steve said.

"Oh you’re serious? Oh if you’re serious than I'm very sorry- yes, yes I do, and this, this is not not talking about it ever," Danny said, defensively.

"I want to talk about it," Steve said.

"I don’t," Danny lied.

"You’re always telling me to talk more about my feelings, and now I try you don’t wanna listen," Steve said impatiently.

"Your feelings?" Danny sneered.

"Yeah, my feelings," Steve said, defensively.

"You want to talk about your feelings?" Danny repeated, sarcastically.

"That’s what I just said! what’s the matter with you, why wont you talk to me?!" Steve argued.

"Fine. Fine, you wanna talk, lets talk!" Danny huffed.

"Fine!" Steve shouted.

"Fine!" Danny shouted back.

"Fine!" Steve said because he couldn’t think of anything else to say.

"Are those your feelings, are we done now?" Danny asked, impatiently.

"Danny I swear to God-"

"Just _say it_ Steve! Stop chattering and just say it!"

"I AM!"

"YOURE STALLING!"

"WELL IF YOU'D SHUT UP FOR FIVE MINUTES!"

"WOULD YOU TWO KNOCK IT OFF WERE TRYING TO DRINK IN PEACE!"

The shout had come from a boat about three boats away from them, where two people were sitting in deck chairs and drinking in the sunset. The men waved an apology towards them and tried to regain control of their tempers. Both were feeling defensive now though, so it was harder to hold eye contact for long.

"Are we done, Steve?" Danny sighed.

"No. No Danny I..."

Steve couldn’t find the words. They filled his mind and they filled his chest till he felt like he was drowning, but he couldn’t fit them together eloquently enough to make them make sense. It was dawning on him that he had fallen for Danny long along. Long before Catherine, before Charlie was born, before they even met Tani, maybe before they even met Toast. He wasn’t sure when exactly, but at some point that grumpy Jersey idiot had gotten under his skin and Steve never wanted to lose him.

But this could lose him forever. Not just romantically. This could ruin their friendship, which would ruin their partnership which would risk the entire Five-0 team...

It wasn’t something to take lightly.

Danny was well aware of that fact and he had accepted that nothing would ever happen, despite how agonizingly entangled their lives were. They would grow old together, but the hammock was as far as things would go. Right now he was aching and exhausted and his family were waiting inside.

"Can we please go back in Steve?" Danny asked gently.

Steve was still rifling through his words and he didn’t answer. Danny waited for a moment before sighing and turning to walk away.

"Waking up with you-" Steve said, a little too quickly so he could stop Danny leaving without hearing, "Waking up there-"

Danny turned back to face Steve, but left the steps he had taken as space between them. He wasn’t sure where this was going and he wanted a little head start if he had to run. Although the way Steve was fumbling over his words, Danny wondered if he would notice if he walked away now.

"Waking up with you I-in, in the hammock... Waking up with you it was... it was nice..."

Danny's heart skipped a beat, but, classic Danny, his head disagreed to that reaction.

"Nice?" He repeated, bitterly.

Steve’s head rose, his eyes bright with alarm. He definitely didn’t anticipate that reaction. Anger hadn’t even entered his mind. Immediately it set him into defence mode.

"Yeah, nice!" He repeated.

“No, kamekona's shrimp is nice, cold beer on the beach is nice, waking up in your arms is more than nice, its, its, its-"

Danny sounded like an annoyed broken record as he searched for some word that would illustrate his own take on the matter. Steve folded his arms impatiently.

"It’s what Danny? What is it?!" he demanded.

Danny threw his arms in the air and yelled the first thing that came to mind, "Its love! Lee! Its lovely!"

Steve arched his entire upper body upward in disbelief and anger. " _that’s_ what you’re going with?!"

"Is that not good enough for you?" Danny demanded sarcastically.

"It’s no better than nice!" Steve argued.

"Fine!" Danny raised his voice and continued, "Its, its humbling! I-it's joyous! It’s the first time in a long time that I've dared to think it might still be ok to be happy, to fall in love, to feel _safe_ , ok?!"

"Safe?" Steve repeated, softer.

Danny’s voice got softer too as he spoke to the ground and found himself pouring his heart out of all the things he had never said or wanted to say, but felt so clearly inside. As much as he wanted to keep them there, he couldn't find a way to stop it flooding out. The dam was broken, the floodgates were open, the ball was rolling. He could not stop it if he tried.

"Im the one who looks out for everyone. Im the back up. I defend people, protect my ohana, Im the person who keeps people safe. I'm always on edge, always looking for danger where there isn't any. I cant relax... not without you..."

Steve felt as if the entire world was spinning without him. While his own emotions had only recently come to his attention, Danny had clearly known his for a while. Steve found himself wondering how he had been so blind. He was a detective, seeing the signs was literally his job! He felt like a fool. But the more Danny spoke, the more Steve's heart melted for him.

"Because when I'm with you, I'm not the one who has to look out for everyone, because I know you’re looking out for me as well as everyone else. I know that I can finally relax and feel safe because I know I'm protected. I can protect my family, but let my gaurd down because, I'm safe too... because i have you..."

Steve couldn't think of anything but how surprised he was. All the dangers he had dragged Danny into, all the risks they had taken, hell Danny had been tortured for Steve... and he still felt safer with him than without. Despite their mishaps, despite the accidents, despite his mistakes, Danny still trusted him. He still had faith that he would protect him to the best of his abilities. And he would do the same thing back.

That was all Steve could ever want.

Steve took a step closer, to which Danny flinched enough to take a step back. His cheeks were burning and he was holding back tears. If the floor had opened up to swallow him whole he would have been relieved. Instead he was raw and vunerable and furious about it. He couldnt even bring himself to look at Steve but he would have loved the look on his face if he had. The utter dumbfounded look of disbelief and excitement and relief and utter delight was something Steve almost never shared. Almost never felt. Yet when Danny flinched away his face fell. He knew that move. He knew it too well. His heart panged to see it.

"Are you mad at me? Are you seriously mad at me right now?!"

Steve didn't know whether to laugh or scream at Danny. On some level he knew he should have expected the grumpy man would find a way to be grumpy about this, but on another - more personal -level he wasn’t sure if he should be offended that he was.

"Yes! Yes i am! you lured me out here to talk about your feels but I'm the only one talking!" Danny shouted.

"You wanna know how I feel?" Steve asked, rhetorically.

"Yes! More than anything! That’s why we have a therapist, idiot, so you can talk! Talk to me, tell me how you feel!" Danny shouted again.

Steve marched forward so Danny couldn't walk away like he wanted to. Despite him resisting, Steve grabbed the shorter man's arm and pulled him closer until he could reach his chin at which point, he cupped both of Danny's cheeks and kissed him hard. Danny stood, shocked into a statue as Steve's hand ran down the back of his neck. It was like all the years of unknown desire came flooding out at once and he lingered for longer than either had expected.

It was as if he had suddenly been hit by a stick by someone who was screaming _what are you doing you idiot?!_ That made his heart beat like a tambourine and his palms sweaty. The instant it hit, he pulled back and leapt away fearfully, yet he couldn't take his hand away from Danny's cheek. The two of them froze, staring at each other in shock. 

His voice shook as he tried to fane confidence. "Is that a good enough answer?"

Danny was swaying slightly. He felt as though he had been hit by lightning and the entire bolt of electricity had scattered through his veins and batted off of his bones like a pinball stuck between bumpers. It had stopped his heart and his mind before plunging straight down his spine and into the ground. Now, in the after math, he had forgotten how to function.

But he could not allow Steve the upper hand.

Breathlessly he said the only thing he could think of that might salvage his dignity. "Technically you still didn’t say it."

Relief flooded his soul at the realization that he hadnt just destroyed their relationship. In the relief, Steve laughed. The warm, affectionate tone guided Danny back to reality. To the reality of Steve's hand sliding down his cheek to rest affectionately on his collar bone. His entire body ached in delight at the familiarity. Steve leaned forward and touched his forehead against Danny's. Their hair brushed against one anothers, and the intimacy felt perfectly familiar. 

As earnestly as he possibly could, Steve confessed it all in the softest whisper he could muster.

"I think I love you Danny..."

For a moment, Danny's heart swelled three sizes with utter joy. For a moment. Because once Steve’s words reached his brain, something flicked a switch that made him reel back. Steve felt his stomach drop.

"You think?" He repeated, accusing.

A bubble of relief broke in Steves chest, making him laugh.

"Gimme a break man, I was straight yesterday," Steve complained, smirking.

"I know the feeling," Danny lied.

Before they could argue any more, Danny grabbed the marine by his shirt and yanked him back towards him so he could plant a kiss this time. And Danny's kisses took root. Steve's fingers entwined with the hair on the back of his head, and Danny's thumb followed Steve’s jawline. It was as though they were matching pieces in a puzzle. Two very hard pieces in the back ground that it takes like a week to find let alone fit together. But they fit.

They completed the picture.

When they finally broke away again, Steve wasn't really sure what the next stage was. Danny had never dared hope they'd get this far.

"So do you wanna... get dinner, I guess?" Steve asked, uncertainly.

Steve and Danny had been on so many double dates and make up dates and replaced dates when one of them got stood up that neither of them were really sure what counted as a date anymore. Their lives were already intertwined. Dating felt like a step backwards.

"I have to make sure Gracie gets home safe," Danny reminded him.

"Yeah, yeah of course. How about tomorrow?" Steve asked.

"Yeah. As long as we don’t have another case to work that is," Danny shrugged.

"Well then breakfast. Nothing can go wrong if we _start_ the day off right," Steve grinned.

"I like that logic. It’s wrong, but I like it," Danny said.

Steve laughed affectionately but shook his head. "Can you ever just look at the good things in life?"

"No. I told you before, I can’t do that. I see the bad and I plan for it. That’s why you love me," Danny said, seriously.

"God help me I do," Steve sighed.

"Why would God help you? you don’t have to deal with you. If he’s helping anyone, it’ll be me,” Danny countered.

Steve wrapped his arms around Danny and pulled him against his chest to smother him with his love. Danny fought back by burying his head into Steve's biceps and planning to stay there forever. Then he felt people staring at the grown man acting like a love lorn teenager and took a step back.

They leaned against the fence again, but this time with an arm wrapped around one another. Space didn’t exist between them. It never would again if they could help it.

"How will we explain this to Charlie?" Danny wondered aloud.

"Let’s just get through tonight before we think about that," Steve said.

"Back in there? Where everyone we know is waiting for us?" Danny asked.

There was a reluctance in his tone, but it wasn't the fear of hostility. They were both keenly aware that all of the people inside, even Tracy and maybe even Grace, were going to tear them a new one with all their jokes.

"Finally, you guys see what’s right in front of you!"

"Yknow for detectives you’re really not the best at seeing the obvious, are you?"

"You owe me five bucks."

"What, you mean you weren’t dating before?!"

The inevitable jokes and sneers would and did come from a place of affection though. Then the two of them would start trying to work out whose hand fit into who’s and which sides of the best was who’s (they slept on one side in the end and their golden retriever took the other, but that wouldn't happen for another month) and what they would tell Charlie (Rachel pointed out that he had accidentally called Steve daddy on various occasions and took the news as though nothing had changed) who would live where (with much reluctance - confusing Steve because he had practically lived there for the last few years anyway - Danny agreed to sell his house and move in with Steve when the time came) but for now those were all things to worry about later. Soon the rest of the sunlight would fade away, and tomorrow they would wake up, not in a hammock, but in a bed. Steve's bed.

Right now, though, they were going to go back inside their favourite bar to introduce their new boyfriends to their ohana.

Because they deserved to be happy, together.


End file.
